Growing Up Or Growing Together?
by Black Lighted Clouds
Summary: Parental, AU, Kakashi has been a great father for 14 years. But when he begins to get jealous of Sasuke's relationship with his half-brother, the boys think it's time for somebody else in Kakashi's life. But Kakashi won't make it easy for them.
1. Chapter 1

A/N: No, this is not the sequel to amnesia. I just really like Kakashi/Sasuke parentals (there are never enough out there!) so I thought I'd make another story. Many thanks to Gwenhyfer for the name of this story and the title of Amnesia's sequel!

'...' is thought.

"..." is speech.

Growing Up or Growing Together?

1

"So, why are you going again?" the fourteen-year-old raven-haired boy said as he stood in the doorway of his father's room.

"Just to visit some old friends." The white-haired man lied as he fixed the clasps on his full suitcase.

"Mmmhmm." His son answered. Kakashi winced inwardly. 'Most parents can sense when their kids lie to them, with us, it's the other way around. Lucky me.' Kakashi thought, wondering how on Earth his son became a human lie-detector. He loved Sasuke very much, but his uncanny abilities sometimes worried Kakashi.

Kakashi straightened, hearing the crack from his bones as he did so. "Your old man's not cut out for this anymore." He said to his son.

Sasuke chuckled quietly. "That's pretty sad, considering you're only twenty-eight."

Kakashi sighed dramatically as he picked up the heavy suitcase in one hand, placing the other atop Sasuke's dark head. "I know. The joys of being a father. Especially those games of the Claw." (1)

Sasuke raised his left eyebrow, giving Kakashi a familiar look that said 'I'm not going to say what I'm really thinking 'cause I'll get grounded and not be allowed to go to the party at Gaara's house while your away'. What he actually said was "Dad, we haven't played that since I was nine. And exactly how did that affect your back when you only use your hands?"

Kakashi faked a scowl. "Oh, don't be logical at this time in the morning Sasuke."(2)

"It's one in the afternoon."

"And you expect me to be awake and fully alert? Shame on you, child." A thoughtful look crossed his features. "Hang on. Why did we stop playing the Claw? That was fun."

"Dad! I'm too old for that now. Besides, we wouldn't want to injure your old joints anymore than we already have, do we?"

"... It's on."

(So that's how Sasuke found himself being chased around the apartment as his father attempted to play the Claw with him and said man only managed to get to the train station and on the train three minutes before it's departure. Which sucked considering it was the last one going to Kakashi's particular destination.)

Sasuke re-entered the apartment and sat down on the kitchen table. 'So... Dad said I could go anywhere I wanted and do whatever I wanted... as long as I didn't throw any parties.'

As if on cue, there was a knock on the door. Sasuke stood and looked through the peep hole. "Oh, crap..." he muttered. He was just considering ignoring it when the person knocked again.

He sighed, knowing full-well that this particular person wouldn't leave until he was in the apartment for at least four hours. Sasuke reluctantly opened the door.

"Hello, sir-ACK!" Before he could finish his greeting, he was swept of his feet by... his P.E. teacher.

"Sasuke, my boy! How lovely to see you! It is terrible that I only have you on Tuesday's and Wednesday's is it not?" Guy-sensei proclaimed.

Once Sasuke had released himself from the eccentric mans grasp, he said, "Yes, sir. It is terrible." He said a quick prayer in his head to thank God it was Friday and the last day of term, adding for God to please bless the wonderful people who sort out the timetables.

"So! Where is your father?" the bowl-cut man asked, attempting to hide the gleam in his eyes.

'...You so have the hots for him.' Sasuke thought. "He left about twenty minutes ago. Sorry. I guess that means you'll be going then." Sasuke opened the door and held it for his sensei, hoping the man would give up and go. No such luck.

"No, no! I don't mind waiting."

Sasuke groaned inwardly. He'd been afraid of that. "He'll be gone for two weeks, sir."

Guy looked devastated. "Oh! Where has he gone?!"

Sasuke hesitated, not sure if he should tell him where he had gone or lie and say he was in a totally different place. He wouldn't put it past the green-clad man to run all the way to the hotel Kakashi was staying in.

"Uh...he's in Kiri."(3) He decided honesty was his only option, really.

"Kiri?!"

Sasuke began to back away slowly. "Yes... Kiri."

"Why?!"

"I don't know! He just said he wanted to visit some old friends!"

Guy froze. Then he stood with his arms folded, a large frown on his face and a murderous gleam in his eye. Sasuke officially began to panic. This man may be a complete idiot, but when he went crazy... well, Sasuke didn't want to think about that time at the restaurant. That poor chef was never the same again.

"What friend...?"

'Oh, God! He's jealous!' "He didn't say. But seeing as its Kiri... probably Zabuza."

"ZABUZA?!"

'Stupid, stupid, stupid!! How could I be stupid enough to say his name?!' "Yes, Guy-sensei."

Guy simply stormed out of the apartment. Sasuke sighed and locked the door. 'It's bad enough when a male teacher is in love with your father... but why did it have to be Guy?! Of all people... Guy. Ugh.'

Sasuke picked up the phone to tell Gaara he was in fact coming to the party, muttering to himself as he did so, "I hope dad's having a better time than I am right now."

(Over in Kiri, in a big, fancy mansion)

"No, Kakashi! It's simply out of the question!" the woman with long dark hair shouted.

"Why?!" he bellowed back. He was absolutely furious. "I've put up with all of your crap for the last fourteen years, but this is the last straw!! He's your son, too!"

"Well, he's not mine, so-"

"SHUT THE HELL UP, FUGAKU!! This doesn't concern you! Like you said, he's not your son, so try to keep that huge nose of yours out of things that don't concern you for once!!" (4)

"How dare you speak to me like that in my house!"

"I'm defending my son!" Kakashi turned back to the woman. He began again, trying to calm down as he did so. "Mikoto, why are you doing this? You are Sasuke's mother! Would you begrudge him a little parental love? He is no different from Itachi!"

"He's an illegitimate child, therefore, he has nothing to do with us!" she protested.

Kakashi couldn't believe his ears. Kakashi shouted "Well, you should have thought about the results before you got drunk and slept with me fourteen years ago, shouldn't you!"

"Don't you dare accuse me of such things!" Mikoto shrieked.

Kakashi gaped at her. "That's what happened! If it hadn't happened, Sasuke wouldn't exist!"

Mikoto scowled angrily while her face flushed bright red. "As far as I'm concerned, he doesn't!"

Kakashi froze. He couldn't believe his ears. Eventually, he said "When I took Sasuke home and vowed to look after him, I thought I was protecting him from this bastard." He looked Fugaku in the eyes as he said this. "I see how wrong about that I was!"

Kakashi turned on his heel and strode out of the room rapidly, slamming the door behind him. A second later he opened it and said "Don't ever think of asking to see him, ever! It's too late to change your mind, I just hope you remember that when your old and worn and there's no one left to kiss your ass! You had two sons and you've lost one forever!"

Kakashi stomped down the hallway angrily.

"So it is true." A deep voice said quietly. Kakashi turned.

A handsome young man now stood in front of him. Hardly twenty, the man was very pale, he had onyx black hair tied in a low pony-tail and his eyes, though the same colour as his hair, also held a deep crimson gleam in them. It wasn't apparent at first glance, but take a long look and you couldn't miss it.

"Can I help you?" Kakashi snapped, still feeling very angry. The man's left eyebrow rose, his face taking on a familiar look... a very familiar look. "Don't you recognise me?"

Kakashi grunted. He wished these damn Uchihas' would just get to the damn point, for once! "No, quite obviously, I don't rec-"

Kakashi froze. 'Wait... Uchihas'... that look... I'm supposed to recognise him...'

Kakashi looked up, seeming absolutely shocked. "...No way... Itachi?!"

The young man smirked. "About time you remembered me. So what's all this about my little brother?"

Kakashi frowned. "Half-brother."

Itachi shrugged. "Still counts."

A/N: Yes, another chapter story! READ AND REVIEW, PLEASE!

(1) This is a game my brother and I used to play with our dad. Dad came up with the name. It's tickling, basically.

(2) My mum goes off on weird rants some times. No she's not insane. She hates it when I counter with logic though. That's where this came from.

(3) This is where the Village Hidden in the Mist is, in the Land of Water. I think it's the right place anyway. Did I spell it right?

(4) Fugaku's nose does look quite large at some angles, has anybody ever noticed that?


	2. Chapter 2

A/N: Many thanks to evil sasuke girl, Gwenhyfer, Dragon77, kuzon234ray, Mizuki hikari and sarahofearth!! Your reviews/favourites/alerts were very flattering and supportive. Yeah, you too Unicorn Sky Rider.

btw, whoever it was that said "I bet Itachi didn't even know Sasuke existed" that was one hell of a guess!! Was it that obvious?

**2**

Sasuke dumped the groceries on the floor as he locked the door of the apartment. Turning, he picked them up and walked into the kitchen.

And nearly had a heart attack.

"Dad!" Sasuke shouted.

Kakashi and a man with hair and eyes the same as Sasuke watched him curiously. The man turned to Kakashi with his eyebrows raised. "Does he always shout like that?"

Kakashi and Sasuke both ignored him as Sasuke said, "I thought you were going for two weeks, it's only been six days!"

Kakashi pretended to look hurt and betrayed as he placed both hands over his heart. "You don't want to see your dear old dad! In those short six days, you've already forgotten me! How terrible you are!"

Sasuke rolled his eyes and muttered "Give me a break." under his breath as the other man looked from Kakashi to Sasuke and back again, clearly wondering if this melodramatic performance was a regular occurrence in their household.

Sadly, it was. Sasuke returned his gaze to his father. "Done being a drama queen now?"

Kakashi tried his best to look indignant. "I am not a-"

"Yes, you are." Sasuke said curtly, folding his arms across his chest crossly.

Kakashi smiled mischievously. "Yeah, I know. By the way, this is Itachi," he gestured to the handsome man, "Itachi this is Sasuke. You haven't seen him since he was born."

Itachi snorted. "I'm aware of that, Kakashi. But still... from the heavy resemblance, it's obvious he's my brother."

Sasuke's jaw dropped. "What?!"

"I told you, he's your half-brother." Kakashi said sharply.

"And I told you it still counts." Itachi countered just as sharply.

"Hang on, back up a minute," Sasuke said, returning the two men's gaze to himself. "What do you mean "brother"? I don't have one."

Itachi frowned at him. Suddenly he turned to Kakashi and said angrily, "You didn't tell him?!"

Kakashi shrugged "Obviously."

"Why?!" Itachi demanded.

Kakashi grinned. "It's more fun to be dramatic. Plus it's interesting to see how long it takes him to figure things out on his own. Then again, he is a genius, so that doesn't take very long."

Itachi scowled before returning his eyes to look at his younger brother. "Yeah, we have the same mother, different fathers. It seems your father likes to keep you in the dark, but how about I make this easier for the both of us and tell you a few things out right?"

This startled Sasuke, he was used to his father's eccentric, 'I love to see how you'll figure this one out' approach, but he preferred this way and was glad his brother was the type who preferred it too, so he nodded immediately.

Itachi seemed pleased that Sasuke had obviously not inherited very much personality wise form Kakashi.

Itachi started "I'm going to be here for a while, renting an apartment in another block a few streets away from the two of you. I'm also the new English substitute teacher at your school so you'll be seeing me there as well. Any questions so far?"

Sasuke frowned. "Yeah, how old are you anyway?"

"Twenty years old. Why do you ask?" (1)

Sasuke's frown deepened. "Is it even possible for somebody to be a teacher that young?" (2)

Kakashi explained "Itachi isn't your average person, Sasuke. He graduated from university at sixteen. He's smart."

Sasuke gave his father a look that clearly said, 'Well, if he graduated from university at sixteen, of course he's smart, dad! Really clever deduction, I don't think.'

Itachi continued. "By the way, our mother and my father don't know I'm here. They think I'm on a trip to look for career offers."

Sasuke shrugged. "I can keep a secret."

(Four hours later)

Kakashi tucked the blanket around his sleeping sons form, watching him breathing deeply and evenly. He had managed to move Sasuke from where he had fallen asleep on his computer to the couch, afraid that if he attempted to get him into his room, he would wake up.

"Why did you check what he was doing on the computer?"

Kakashi turned to face Itachi. "Because I never know what he's doing on there."

Itachi raised his left eyebrow, the resemblance between Sasuke and himself even more pronounced than usual. "Don't you trust him?"

Kakashi frowned. "Yes, I trust him. It's not a matter of trust."

"Yes, it is." Itachi countered. "If you really trusted him, you wouldn't need to pry into what he's doing."

"Whatever." Kakashi tried to change the subject, trying to ignore the uncomfortable twinge in his stomach that said Itachi was probably right.

After a few moments of silence, Itachi said "Alright, I should head to my apartment now. Tell Sasuke I'll see him tomorrow." And with that, he was gone.

Kakashi bolted the door, then returned to the kitchen and sat down heavily, a million thoughts buzzing through his head all at once.

'What's he up to? He just suddenly decided he wants to come and bond with his brother? And even if he does, why wouldn't he tell his family the truth? I mean, I know he doesn't like Fugaku anymore than I do... but still...'

Kakashi winced inwardly. He wondered what Fugaku could have done to his own child to make Itachi detest him as much as he did and sincerely hoping that Sasuke never comes to resent him in that way.

Flashback

Kakashi and Itachi stared at each other from opposite sides of the table in the cafe.

"Let me get this straight," Kakashi said, "The only memory of Sasuke you have is the day he was born because he was actually born in the house instead of the hospital, when you were six years old."

"Yes."

"And you want to come with me to Konoha to meet with him and begin to bond with him, while you work at his school as a substitute teacher."

"Yes."

"And you're not going to tell your parents, it's just going to be a secret between Sasuke, you and me."

"That's correct."

Kakashi looked Itachi in the eye shrewdly. "And you're doing all this... why exactly?"

Itachi looked out the window by which they had been seated. "Well... let's just say I need to get away from this place for a while."

"Why's that?"

Itachi looked back at Kakashi. "Fugaku. I detest him more than you could ever imagine. He's always trying to control me, my life, my way of doing things. And he's so arrogant! I'm sick of him. What makes matters worse is that everyone else in the clan adores him. They call him a great leader."

Itachi snorted angrily. "I'm sick and tired of the lot of them. I never really liked them to begin with, to tell you the truth. Sasuke on the other hand... I think I'd actually be able to get along well with him. At least, I want to try. So, do we have a deal?"

Kakashi hesitated. "...Yeah. You've got yourself a deal Itachi.

End Flashback

Something had not been right through out that whole conversation, Kakashi could feel it. Itachi was definitely hiding something; there was no doubt about that.

But he had been right. He and Sasuke got along very well and thy really seemed to like each other very much. If Kakashi started questioning Itachi or doing something hostile, Itachi might leave and Sasuke would not be pleased. But still...

Kakashi made his decision. He stood, picked up the phone on the kitchen counter and dialled a familiar number. After listening to the dial tone for a minute or two, a man picked up.

"Hello?"

"Zabuza. It's me, Kakashi. I need a favour."

A/N: Yeah, I thought I'd cut it off there. You know what to do.

READ AND REVIEW, PLEASE!!

(1) Itachi is actually 5 years older than Sasuke, not 6. I just felt like changing his age. I was gonna make him 22 so there would be 8 years between them but I changed my mind for some reason.

(2) Is that possible? I really don't know.


	3. Authors Note

**A/N:** First of all, thank you to Inu-kikki demonic, Unicorn Sky Rider, Kuzon234Ray, evil sasuke girl, Dragon77, Myriam06, Chosa Kurenai, SamoaCookie, Gwenhyfer, writers are INSANE, MCL3690 and Devil Subaru Chan. I'm so sorry I made you guys wait this long! My mirosoft word still isn't working, so I decided to just do this the traditional way. Don't blame me is it's crap or has lousy editing!

**3**

'Number thirteen, number thirteen, where is it? Nine... eleven... ah, thirteen.' Sasuke replaced the scrap piece of paper and knocked on his half-brothers apartment door, only to have it open the second his fist touched the wood. 'Guess he didn't lock the door.'

He lingered, wondering if he really should enter. He walked in after a few seconds, deciding it was safe. The apartment was small, furnished with dark-coloured wooden furniture. Sasuke chuckled inwardly. His brother seemed fond of darker things, just like him. Then he frowned, noticing something out of place. Where was he? "Itachi?" he called.

As he continued walking through the homely living room, he felt a sense of unease settle over him. He knew his brother liked it when it was quiet, another thing they had in common, but this was waaay too silent, too still, even for Itachi. "Itachi?" he called again.

There was no answer, just as before. He began to wonder if maybe he was in the wrong apartment. Perhaps he had written the wrong number down?

"Hello, Sasuke."

Said boy jumped and whirled around at the voice sounding right by his ear. He didn't like people getting within his personal space. Especially a stranger. Who the heck was this guy? The man was tall and blonde with his left eye covered, the other one was a soft, pale blue. He smiled at the look on Sasuke's young face, white teeth shining against his lightly tanned skin. He looked over his shoulder. "Hey, Sasori! Kisame! Come meet the kid!"

Two men entered the room also. One was pale with greyish eyes and deep red hair. The other had small bllack eyes, blue hair and blue skin. Sasuke nearly yelped in surprise when he saw him. He was the strangest person Sasuke had ever set eyes on. The red-head slouched against the doorframe. "Hm. So you're Sasuke, huh?"

Sasuke frowned again. Who were these guys? "Yeah. Who're you?"

The blue-haired guy grinned, showing sharp, pointed teeth. 'He kind of looks like a shark...' Sasuke thought.

"I'm Kisame." he said. "No need to worry, kido, Itachi told us all about you."

"OI!" the blonde shouted. "Have some manners, will you, un? Introduce the rest of us before you babble on." He turned back to Sasuke, smiling brightly. "I'm Deidara, un. Nice to meet ya! Oh, and this is Sasori." he added, indicating the slouched man. Said man nodded.

"Guys? What are you doing?" a voice drifted over to them. Itachi walked into the room. His eyes widened when they landed on his younger brother.

"Sasuke! What are you doing here?" he inquired as he hurried over to him.

"Uh, looking for you..." he trailoed off, looking at the others who were staring at the Uchiha's intently. "But I can go if you're busy." He was about to walk away when he was grabbed by his arm.

"No, no, don't worry about it. Stay. I've been meaning to introduce you to my friends, anyway." Itachi insisted as he ushered them onto the chairs and the couch. "We can all have a nice talk."

**(Two hours later)**

The lock on the door clicked as Sasuke inserted and twisted his key. 'Well, that was certainly... interesting.'

Flashback

Sasuke stared in shock as Kisame laughed as he rolled around on the floor clutching his stomach and Sasori chuckled quietly. Itachi was still attempting to get up. This proved rather difficult as he had the overturned chair beneath him and an over-enthusiastic blonde artist above him.

"Deidara! I told you! Not in front of Sasuke!" Itachi protested.

"But Itachiiiiiii..." the blonde said at length. "He's gotta learn sometime..."

"Don't worry, I've already seen all this before." Sasuke said, having got over his initial shock.

"WHAT?!!" Itachi shouted. Now it was his turn to be shocked.

Sasuke blinked. "Dad's bisexual. I grew up around his various girlfriends and boyfriends."

Itachi looked livid at the thought that his precious baby brother had been exposed to that sort of conduct his entire life. And the fact that Deidara chose to do this now was definitely not helping. "Oh, come now, 'Tachi! He'll live." Deidara said before forcing his lover back onto the ground. Or the chair. It was hard to tell at that angle.

Sasukie smiled. "Okay, I'll see you guys later." he stood to leave.

"We'll give you a lift home." Sasori offered. "We're going your way."

"Thanks."

End Flashback

The door swung open. Revealing a very surprised Zabuza and Haku. Sasuke stared. "oh, hi guys. I didn't know you two were visiting."

Haku giggled and blushed. Sasuke's gaze switched to him. Haku blushed more and hid behind Zabuza. That kid always was strange.

"Hello Sasuke. We were just leaving. We'll see you tomorrow. Good night." Zabuza said as he led Haku away. Haku winked at Sasuke, who rolled his eyes in return. Typical Zabuza answer. He was either very brief or very dramatic. And Haku was just... Haku. Sasuke's best friend since childhood.

Sasuke entered and closed the door behind him. "Dad?" he called.

"Living room." his father answered.

Walking into said room, Sasuke saw his father seated in his comfy armchair. That was normal. His posture was not. He back was telephone-pole straight, his legs and arms crossed. Sasuke knew immediately that something was not right. He dropped his backpack onto the floor by the doorway that led to his room and sat on the chair across from Kakashi.

"Dad?" Sasuke said uncertainly. "Is something wrong?"

Kakashi took in a deep breath. He switched his gaze from the floor to the fourteen-year-old boy before him. "Sasuke..." he hesitated, unsure of how to say this. "I want you to do something for me. Don't get upset when I tell you."

Sasuke now felt very worried. How terrible could this be? "What is it, Dad?"

Kakashi tensed even more. Then he spilled out in a rush, "I want you to stay away from Itachi."

Sasuke froze as he processesed this information. "...WHAT?! What the hell kind of request is that?!!"

Kakashi sighed inwardly. He knew this was going to happen. "I don't trust him."

"What?!"

"Listen to me. He hangs around with some... suspicios people. While you're with him, you're exposed to them, which is something I don't want."

"Tell the truth." Sasuke snapped harshly.

"What?"

"I've met three of them. Two gave me a lift home. I like them, they'e fun and cool, and I don't see anything suspicious about them at all. The real reason behind this is Itachi. I'm not blind. You've hated him since he came here. I don't know what your problem with him is, but I'm not going to stop seeing them. Any of them." Sasuke used a voice that said he had already made up his mind and nothing was going to change it.

"DAMMIT, SASUKE!!" Kakashi bellowed as he stood up. "I'm your father and you will do as I say! You are forbidden from ever seeing him again!"

Sasuke also jumped to his feet. "He's my brother! We're family too! I'll see him whether you like it or not! And you know what? I've been thinking about going to see my mother while I'm at it, you kept me from her too!"

Kakashi snapped. "I went to see your mother in Kiri to ask her to see you! She doesn't want you, she never did and she never will! You're nothing to her, you don't even exist in her mind! I wouldn't be stuck with you if she did! But I was the idiot who got his life thrown away looking after some brat he didn't want!!"

The room became eerily quiet.

Kakashi had slapped his hand over his mouth. He was horrified with himself.

"...Sh ...she doesn't want me..." Sasuke said slowly. He rose his eyes to look at his father. "...And neither did you."

Before Kakashi could stop him, Sasuke tore out of the room, out of the apartment and into the cold corridor, slamming the door behind him. Kakashi looked forlornly at the door his child had disappeared through. 'Way to go, Kakashi,' was all he could think.

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

A/N: I tried to make this longer to compensate. You know what to do.


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N:** this one's going to be shorter than the last one. I'm still doing it the traditional way to compensate.

**4**

Itachi closed the door as quietly as possible, he didn't want to wake the sleeping boy. He looked over his shoulder at his boyfriend who was gazing at him worriedly.

"How's the little one?" Deidara asked quietly. He liked Sasuke very much, even if he had only met him yesterday. So he was very upset and angry at Kakashi when he found the fourteen-year-old wondering by himself on the streets at night, dirty and tired. He had only gone out for a quick visit to the chemists. He hadn't wanted to, but now he was glad he had.

"Still sleeping." Itachi answered. He raised an eyebrow as the blonde continued to look at him wearily. "What?"

"And how are you?" Deidara inquired. To anybody else, it would've sounded like an innocent enough question, but Itachi heard the real question behind it.

"I'm going to kill him."

Deidara sighed. He had expected as much. "I think you're overreacting."

He hurriedly continued after seeing the furious expression in the Uchihas' eyes. "It'll be better if you just stay out of it. If you and Kakashi get into a fight, Sasuke will inevitably be drawn into it. That is **not **the best thing for him. I think we should just let him go home and sort this whole thing out. **Without** you there."

Deidara was taken aback when Itachi kissed him. Considering what he had just said, he expected Itachi to hit him. When he drew back, there was a small smile on his face. Now Deidara was really scared.

"You're right, Deidara," Itachi said, "Kakashi and I shouldn't fight. And we won't. There's no need if Sasuke doesn't live with him anymore."

Deidara's visible eye widened incredulously. Itachi had to be kidding. He wasn't. "You can't take Sasuke away from his father!"

"Why not?"

"Sasuke loves his dad! Besides, you'd need proper grounds for a change in guardianship, you can't just take him!"

"I have grounds."

"What grounds?!"

"Number one; Kakashi openly admittied that he does not want Sasuke. Number two; he upset and scared Sasuke enough so he ran away quite willingly. Number three; you saw Sasuke when you found him, wanderring alone by himself in the dead of night, anything could've happened to him. Did Kakashi go looking for him? No. Did Kakashi beg him to come home? No. Did Kakashi come round here to see if Sasuke was safe with us? Or to ask if we had seen him? No, he did not, though I thank God that you found him when you did." Flashes of anger were visible behind Itachi's no-nonsense appearence.

Deidara closed his eyes and sighed inwardly. He still didn't think this was a good idea, but he had to admit that Itachi had a point. And that he too was angry at Kakashi. Opening his eyes again slowly, he said to his lover, "Well, if you think this is the best for him, I'll support you. I love that kid, too."

He looked at his watch. Eight thirty-five a.m. "I guess it's time to wake him up."

Sasuke stirred sleepily at the sound of the door opening. He pulled his head out from under the blanket to look out the window. When had somebody put a blanket on him? As he gazed out the window, he saw brilliant rays of sunlight. It must've been early morning. He rolled over on the couch and looked at the door. Deidara walked around the couch and knelt beside him. Itachi stayed behind the back of the couch, though he put his hand on Sasuke's head in a brotherly show of affection.

"Hey there, sleep well?" Deidara asked him.

Itachi's lips twitched into a smile. His lover sounded like a concerned mother who had put her child back to bed after a nightmare.

"Yeah, thanks for bringing me back here. Sorry I messed up your night." Sasuke said, still sounding half-asleep.

"Oh, baby, don't be. I'm glad you're here." Deidara wrapped his arms around Sasuke.

Itachi had to hold in a snort of laughter. 'Definitely a mother,' he thought cheerfully, his bad mood evaporating.

A heavy knock sounded at the door. "I'll get it." Itachi said as he walked out of the room, into the corridor. He unlocked and opened the door-

"What do you want?" he demanded in a disgusted voice.

"I want my son."

"That's not what you told him last night. "I got my life thrown away looking after some brat I don't want," were your exact words, as I recall." Itachi was about to slam the door shut in his face, but it was forced open again.

"I didn't mean what I said about not wanting him. The rest was true, but not that." Kakashi said. There was a pleading look in his eyes that Iachi tried his best to ignore.

"Well, you shouldn't have said it, then, should you?" he tried again to shut the door and was once again thwarted.

"Please," Kakashi begged. "Please, j-just let me talk to him for five minutes. No more. I just want to apologise."

Itachi snapped. "Apologise? You think all this will be solved by an apology?! Do you know where Deidara found him last night?! Wondering on the streets, covered in filth, crying his poor heart out! Anything could have happened to him! He could've beenf beaten, or raped, or killed, or God knows what! And you did absolutely nothing!"

Kakashi looked horrified. "I-I thought he would've come straight here! I didn't think he'd wander around at that time!"

"Yeah, well he did!" Now that Itachi had done his fair share of shouting, he realised that he wanted Kakashi to apologise to Sasuke. Hell, he demanded it. Opening the door fully, he ushered the older male inside and closed the door.

Kakashi stared at him, confused. Itachi pointed at the living room door. "He's in there. Five minutes, no more."

Kakashi nodded his thanks and opened the door.

Itachi rested his head on the door. Maybe Deidara was right. His whole 'I'm taking Sasuke' idea might not be a very smart one. He was pulled from his thoughts when the voice of a certain artist screeched "WHAT THE HELL ARE** YOU** DOING HERE?!!"

Damn. He didn't warn Kakashi about Deidara. He hurried into the room, grabbed Deidara and dragged him out, leaving his baby brother and Kakashi in the room together alone.

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A/N: I seriously didn't know where else to end this! I've got a lot of homework, so I'm going to hurry up with this fic.


	5. Chapter 5

**A/N:** This one's probably gonna be a bit shorter than intended. I'm still keeping to tradition, folks! Thanks to everyone who reviewed/story alerted this! Unicorn Sky Rider, I don't care about The Lion King, seriously.

**5**

"Ablosutely not."

"Why not?!"

"Because I said so."

"But-"

"No."

"The kid's got a point."

"Stay out of this, Deidara!"

"I'll butt in all I want. I'm supporting Sasuke in this, you're being totally unfair and waaaay over-protective."

"And what honestly makes you think I'm going to go along with this because you support it?"

"Because you love me."

"..."

"...Well?"

"...Shut up, Deidara." Sigh. "Alright, alright, you win Sasuke."

"Thanks, Deidara."

"Anytime, kido."

And that's how Sasuke found himself outside his dad's house, moving back in again.

"I still think this is a bad idea." Itachi muttered under his breath, just loud enough for Deidara to hear him.

Deidara leaned over and placed a gentle kiss on his boyfriends cheek. "Calm down. We're doing what's best."

Itachi snorted distainfully. "Yeah, right, what's best. Best for who?"

"All of us."

Another snort.

Deidara sighed. This was going to take a lot of work, he could feel it. "Didn't you listen to a word Sasuke said?"

Itachi glared half-heartedly before turning away. "Yeah, I heard him."

"The kid's smart. He knows what he's doing. Besides, as long as we're discreet, Kakashi will never know, you and I are safe and whole, and all of us end up happy; everybody wins. Just trust him, okay? We just need to stick with the plan." Deidara reached over and sqeezed Itachi's pale hand lovingly.

"I do trust him, Deidara. I'm just...," sigh "worried."

Deidara fought back the laugh that was creeping up his throat, knowing it would only vex Itachi further. "I know, I know, you're good at that. It's gonna be okay. Just be patient, alright?"

"...Alright."

"Good. Uh, Itachi?"

"Yes?"

"Can we go home now?"

Itachi smiled for the first time that evening. He changed gear and soon he and Deidara were speeding to their apartment. Literally. They were lucky no cops saw them going at eighty in a forty-five miles per hour zone. Deidara liked going really fast.

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Sasuke pushed his red curtains closed again after watching his brother and his boyfriend speed off. 'Looks like Deidara managed to calm Itachi down,' he thought. 'Quite an amazing feat. What would I do without him?'

Sasuke's head jerked up. Kakashi stood in the doorway. The both of them looked awkwardly at the floor. This was new to the both of them. Believe it or not, in fourteen years, Kakashi and Sasuke had never had a single fight. Not one. Most would see this as an advantage to their relationship. Usually it was, but not when they had just had their first-ever argument. Neither of them had any idea what to do now.

"So...," Kakashi began awkwardly.

Sasuke stayed silent, listening patiently.

"Um... how did you convince your brother to let you come home? I thought that would be impossible."

"Yeah... so did I ... Deidara's really the one who convinced him. After a lot of arguing." Sasuke said. They looked at each for a second before Sasuke lowered his gaze to the floor again.

Kakashi felt a stab in his heart as Sasuke looked away from him. 'Keep him talking,' he thought.'Keep the conversation going.' At least he hoped that would work.

"Uh... you, um... you said yesterday you needed help finishing one of your homework assignments...?"

Sasuke shook his head, eyes still glued to the floor. "No, when I was still at Itachi's place one of his other friends, Sasori, came and helped me."

Kakashi felt another pang in his chest. Sasuke may have forgiven him and come home, but... Kakashi still felt like he was losing his little boy.

"Oh, okay... I'll, um... I'll see you in the morning." Kakashi said, turmning his back. What was he going to do?!

"'Night."

When he reached the doorway, Kakasi paused. He decided to have one more go. "Um, son?"

Sasuke looked up.

"Do you, um... do you want me to drive you to school tomorrow? First day of term and everything..."

Sasuke was surprised. Then he nodded slowly. "Yeah, sure. Thanks."

Kakashi closed the door. 'Well, not much of a break through,' he thought as he walked down the hall. 'But it's better than nothing.'

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

After tossing and turning for hours on end, Itachi was about ready to give up all together. He sighed as he looked out of the window, looking up at the shiny white moon through the open curtains. He was still worried.

Getting up slowly and quietly, so as to not wake the slumbering blonde still in the bed, Itachi walked into the kitchen and made himself some coffee. 'I have nothing to worry about,' he thought as he downed the hot liquid. 'Nothing at all. Trust in the plan'.

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Sasuke breathed slowly in and out, his sleep peaceful and untroubled. He dreamed of the plan he had come up with to finally give his father some happiness outside of their own relationship. For an improvised plan, he thought it would work quite well. He had faith in it. What else could possibly work?

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Kakashi leaned back against his head board, the framed photographs clutched tightly to his body. The one he was looking at currently was of himself at seventeen years old, holding his three-year-old son as Sasuke giggled and played with Kakashi's silver hair. His father had taken this when Kakashi wasn't paying attention. Sakumo had never been supportive of what Kakashi had done. He showed no love for his grandchild at all. Kakashi was shocked the day he entered his father's room to see the very picture he now held on the bedside table.

Kakashi blinked back tears at the memories. He had been so sad the day his father died. He had been in hospital with terminal illness. They all knew he was going to die. When he visited, Kakashi expected to be told that he was a screw-up his father despised. That's exactly what Sakumo said. Until he gave Sasuke a little gift. A small white teddy bear, worn with age, just perfect for the toddler. The next words from his fathers mouth stayed with him always, "It's true you always disappointed me, Kakashi. I expected better from you. But you are a much better father than I ever could have been. Sasuke is lucky to have you. That's why I am truly proud to call you my son and he my grandson. I want the two of you to have a better relationship than we ever could have had. Look after him, Kakashi. He needs you." And he died.

Ever since that day, Kakashi swore that if he did nothing else worthwhile in his life, he would protect his son, help him, make him happy, love him. All he wanted was a good relationship with Sasuke. And they had a brilliant one for so many years. Now the tears welled up once more at the thought that it was all slipping away.

'No,' he thought determindly. 'No, I won't let that happen. I won't lose my son. Not now, not ever.' Inspiration struck. A plan. He would repair the bonds between his child and himself. And nothing was going to stop him. But he had to act fast.

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**A/N: I wanted to keep you all in suspense about these "plans"of their's. How did I do?**

**P.S. I'm trying to update as soon as possible to make amends for keeping you all waiting for so long. I'm really sorry!**


	6. Chapter 6

**A/N: OC ALERT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I wasn't going to have them in this story, but I've decided to use only one of mine and one of Unicorn Sky Riders'. You have been warned. **

**(btw, I was going to use this little scene, the begining that is, in a high school fic I planed to write, but I abandoned that idea cause I'm not going to write that fic).**

**6**

"Hey, Red."

Gaara raised his black-lined eyes to stare at Sasuke. He silently moved his bag onto the floor of the bus and allowed Sasuke to seat himself beside said red-head.

"What's up?" he asked in his throaty, dark voice.

"My half-brother's come to visit."

Gaara's invisible eyebrows rose. "You never mentioned any half-brother."

"Didn't know I had one."

Gaara grunted in acknowledgement.

A loud eruption of giggles sounded from somewhere behind them. Sasuke rolled his eyes and slouched a little in his seat. Gaara lowered his head so only the most observant of people could've seen this tiny movement.

'Fangirls,' Sasuke thought in annoyance. 'They never shut up.'

"I don't know why you two don't like them." an obnoxious voice said.

Gaara and Sasuke simultaneously glanced over their shoulders to see who was seated directly behind them: Naruto Uzumaki.

"I would love to have girls climbing all over me. It sounds great."

"It's not."

"Yeah, and it's none of your business, Uzumaki." Sasuke agreed as he looked at Gaara again. 'There's only one girl I want,' Sasuke thought 'And you'd kill me if you knew.'

"Sis!"

"Hey, bro, how was VA class?"

Sasuke's heart thundered in his chest as he glanced behind him again. Nojiko Uzumaki; Naruto's twin sister.

Sasuke switched his gaze to the floor as fast as possible. He didn't have to look at his crush, he had memorized everything about her already. He jumped when he felt a cold hand on his arm. He looked up into glittering blue eyes.

"Hey, Sasuke, do you know if we got any homework in French?" Nojiko asked, brushing her midnight black hair out of her eyes with her pale hand.

Sasuke forced himself to speak. "We don't have any homework, Nojiko."

Nojiko sighed in relief, smiling at him gratefully. "Thanks, I completely spaced out halfway through it." She faced her brother as he began to talk about something completely irrelevant to Sasuke.

Sasuke winced as he felt a stinging pain from Gaara pinching him unexpectantly. He glared. "What did you do that for?"

Gaara leaned forward to make sure the twins wouldn't hear, completely unnescessary as Naruto had a very loud voice that could cover up anybody's conversation. "Ask her out already."

Sasuke shook his head. "No."

"Why not? You get along fine with her. You're in all the same classes as her. You'll have to face it eventually."

"No, I won't. And getting along with her is called being civilised, Gaara. She dislikes me as much as her brother does." Sasuke sighed. "Besides, when are you gonna ask Shitumi out, huh?"

Gaara tried vainly to hide his blush. Sasuke was always amazed by that. Shitumi was the only girl who could make Gaara do that in this lifetime. And there would probably never be another one.

Gaara swallowed. "You know I can't."

Sasuke smirked. "You're being a coward."

Gaara's head snapped up. "So are you!"

Sasuke sighed. "Yeah, I know."

The bus took off then. Sasuke settled into his seat for what he knew would be a long and depressing journey.

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Sasuke began to walk through the crack in the wall and down the path that was a shortcut to his apartment as the bus drove off again. A voice floated down to his ears, "Sasuke! Wait up!"

Looking over his shoulder, he was surprised to see Nojiko hurrying down to him. When she skidded to a halt, she held out her hand.

"This is yours, isn't it?"

Sasuke looked down in amazement. His wallet. He lost that a week ago when he ran away from his dad. Taking the red leather in his hand, he replaced it into his back pocket.

Switching his gaze to her, he saw Nojiko looking at him in a mixture of amusement and confusion."Thanks."

"No promblem."

"Uh... why are you staring at me like that?"

"Why didn't you check to see if I'd taken anything?"

"I trust you."

Nojiko laughed. "Strange how little of that there is in the world."

"Yeah." Sasuke was a little uncomfortable at the moment, he'd never been alone with Nojiko before. "Um... don't you and Naruto get off somewhere else?"

"Usually, yeah, but we're staying with Jiraiya, Orochimaru and Tsunade for a couple of weeks so this is the quickest root there."

"Oh. Um, where's Naruto then?"

Nojiko stuck a thumb over her shoulder, indicating her brothers whereabouts. "Shops. Wanted some takeaway ramen."

"SIS!!!"

Both dark-haired teenagers turned to see the blonde running down towards them.

"What's up?"

Naruto grinned brightly. "Kiba called! He finally worked up the courage to ask his crush out and she said yes!"

Nojiko matched her brothers grin, though her's didn't show her teeth. Her teeth never showed when she smiled. "Well, that's great. Congrats to Kiba."

"Yeah."

Both twins looked at the boy in surprise. Sasuke shrugged. "It's hard asking the girl you like. Especially when you know it's not just **liking** them."

Nojiko's shout of surprise broke the silence in the clearing. "Oh, cripes! We're gonna be sooooo late, Naruto!"

Naruto and Nojiko burst abruptly out the crack in the wall and into the street, going the opposite way to Sasuke's root.

"See you, Sasuke!" They both shouted.

Sasuke smiled at their retreating figures. "See you! But tell me who Kibas' girlfriend is!"

Naruto gave the reply as Nojiko jumped over the metal fence. "Shitumi!!!!"

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________**___**

**A/N: My last chapter was set on late night Sunday. This is set on Friday afternoon when school ends. To save my own confusion, Sasuke has my timetable. Nojiko is mine. Shitumi is Unicorn Sky Riders'. This was just an introduction chapter to them.**


	7. Chapter 7

**A/N: I'm trying to hurry this along, in case you haven't noticed.**

**7**

Kakashi walked into the apartment, still stewing over his plan, when he saw his son sitting at the kitchen table over a pile of papers. "Whatcha doin', son?" he asked, putting on his usual joking manner and praying to God that his son wouldn't see through it.

"Homework." Sasuke grumbled.

Kakashi raised his eyebrows. "Already? It's only been one week since you were back at school."

Sasuke just grunted. Kakashi was used to this; Sasuke hated homework, even if it was no problem for him. Sasuke startled him by slamming down his work and staring at him hard.

"Uh, what?" Kakashi asked uncertain.

"Dad... it's been a while since you had any of your old friends over, hasn't it?"

Kakashi was shocked to say the least. "Um, I guess so... why?"

Sasuke shrugged. "I just thought that you might like to have someone round. I mean, Zabuza's in town with Haku... Guy and Lee would come over at a split second's notice... and the last time we saw Asuma and Kurenai was at their wedding. You know, just the usual crowd you've kinda lost touch with."

Now Kakashi was slightly scared. "Um... okay, son... if neither of us have too much to do... I suppose I could invite some of them around."

A loud beeping sounded in the kitchen. Sasuke pulled out his black and silver mobile, glancing at the screen before saying, "Gaara. Gotte go." and he walked out of the kitchen into the hallway that led ot the front door and his room.

As soon as he closed his door, he snapped open the phone and said, "That was way too close."

"Hello to you too, un."

"Oh! Deidara, why are you calling from Itachi's phone?"

"'Tachi had to step out for a bit. So, have you done it?"

Yeah, phase one, complete. We'll just have to wait for phase two to roll around. I'll try to convince Dad to make it as soon as possible. See you later."

"Bye, un!" Sasuke closed his phone with a snap. He barely put it down for one second when it rang again. Sasuke chuckled inwardly when he saw the name on his caller-id. "Hey, Gaara."

"Hey."

"You okay, man? That must've been rough for you."

"...Yeah, it was. Oh well, when the love of your life has a boyfriend, that's when you truly begin to appreciate havoing a big brother who convinces you to pig out on ice-cream."

Sasuke laughed quietly. "So, what's up?"

"I'm bored. Want to sleep over Friday?"

"Whoa!"

"Whoa" what?"

"I know your upset, but... man you actually sleep now?"

"Oh, haha, shut up. Coming or not?"

Sasuke stuck his head out into the hallway. "Dad! Can I sleep over Gaara's Friday?"

"Knock yourself out!" came the reply.

"Thanks!" then into the phone he said, "Yep. I'll see you tomorrow, 'kay?"

"Yeah, see ya."

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

"Sasuke, un!"

"Hey, Deidara, Itachi beck yet?"

"No, un. But come on in, you can meet the rest of the gang, un!"

"...The "gang"?"

"Yeah! All our friends from Kiri and everywhere else are here!"

Deidara quickly swept Sasuke into the living room. Sasuke saw a man with bright orange hair and eyes with many piercings adorning his face and ears, a woman beside him with short electric blue hair and eyes, also sporting a piercing in her chin with a lot of eye make-up. On the other side of the room were two men; one with lavender eyes and hair the same color as his fathers', the other had brilliant green eyes and dark hair.

"Guys, this is 'Tachi's lil' bro, Sasuke! Sasuke this is Pein, Konan, Hidan and Kakauzu!" Deidara pointed to each of them in turn.

"Hi."

"Hello."

"Hey, there."

"Hiya, squirt."

"Hello, dear."

"I think the young one should meet someone. Although, if he's like his brother, it might be for nothing." Sasuke shot a confused look at Pein, who had been sizing him up. Pein nodded to Kisame, whi had been lurking by the door way all this time. He nodded and calld into the kitchen,"Hey, kido! You're cousin wants you to meet Itachi's little brother!"

Sasuke nearly fainted when Nojiko walked into the room. She froze on the spot when she saw him.

"Sasuke? You're Itachi's brother?" she said in disbelief.

"You're Pein's cousin?" he said, sounding as surprised as she was.

After minutes of silence, Hidan decided to make himself known by saying,"...Well, this is slightly fucked up, isn't it?"

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

**A/N: Yeah, Hidan's gonna swear a lot in this fic. Don't say I didn't warn you.**


	8. Chapter 8

**A/N: YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAYYY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I got my Microsoft Word working again! Joy!! Thanks to everyone who've read/reviewed my story so far!!! (Great, I'm giddy now, lol!)**

**8**

The door of the classroom opened and closed suddenly. Sasuke didn't need to look up to know who it was.

"How lovely of you to grace us with your presence, Miss Shitumi." Genma-sensei said sarcastically.

"Yes, you should all feel honoured." An equally sarcastic voice replied. Sasuke smirked. Typical Shitumi response.

"Don't talk back. Sit with your partner."

The chair beside Sasuke was roughly pulled back and he felt rather than saw Shitumi plop herself down.

"Shitumi." The teacher called again.

Shitumi frowned behind her curtain of waist-length black hair and looked up again. "Yes, sir?"

"That is not school uniform."

Sasuke glanced at her. She was wearing a black singlet and her typical black flat shoes with a school skirt.

"What's your excuse?"

Shitumi shrugged. "I've got a pass."

Genma-sensei frowned but didn't make any further comment. There was no point, no one won an argument with Shitumi.

Sasuke handed her the extra sheet he had picked up for her.

"Answer the questions on both sides, then pick up a microscope, collect your slides and write down your observations in your book. And make sure you don't screw up, you've got a test tomorrow." And with that, Genma disappeared into the backroom.

The second he was out of sight, Shitumi said "That guy's got it in for me."

Sasuke nodded with his eyes on the worksheet in front of him. "Probably. But Genma doesn't like anybody either."

Ten minutes later, the pair were looking through the microscope. It was Shitumi's turn when she said, "So. Who you gonna hook your dad up with?"

Sasuke's head snapped round to stare at her. "What do you mean?"

Shitumi shrugged, causing even more of her hair to fall over the mechanism they were using. "Don't act like that, Hatake. I know all about the plan you and your brother have cooked up. The whole Akatsuki does."

Sasuke frowned. "How did you know I had a brother?"

"Nojiko told me. She and Blondie are Pein's cousins, remember?"

He just nodded dumbly. Then another thought occurred to him. "What the hell is the "Akatsuki"?"

"That's what the group are called. They're kind of a gang. Some of them have very nasty records." He could tell Shitumi was smirking. She loved knowing things he didn't.

As said brunette straightened and pushed the scope towards him so he could take a look, he said, "Well, in answer to your original question, I have no idea. I convinced him to organise a party for a few friends, to see if he's interested in any."

Shitumi punched him in the arm. Hard. "Well, your bloody stupid, aren't you? Coming up with a plan like that without thinking it through properly. Not like you at all."

She jumped as he seized her wrist. Her bare left arm was covered in cuts and bruises. "Who did you fight this time?"

"That bastard, Katchin." Shitumi sounded very angry. She loved fighting and had a very bad temper so she did it quite often, but she never sounded angry about it afterwards. So Sasuke knew immediately that Katchin hadn't threatened her, but her elder brother, Dimitri. He let the matter drop.

A loud thud rang through the classroom, followed by laughter.

Looking over their shoulders, Sasuke and Shitumi saw Naruto lying on the floor with his legs still on the seat of the chair from where he had fallen off of it.

Nojiko hauled her brother to his feet, trying desperately to stop herself from joining her twin on the floor in a giggling fit. She was fighting a losing battle in Sasuke's opinion.

As everyone had returned to their desks and were waiting impatiently for the bell to ring to signal the end of the day, Sasuke muttered "Who do you suggest I pair him with?"

Shitumi thought for a second before saying, "Anko. Definitely Anko."

Sasuke nodded. "Yeah, I thought maybe her, Shizune or Iruka. Though I really don't want it to be Iruka-sensei."

Shitumi leaned forward on the desk, head bowed slightly in agreement. "Yeah, 'cause he's our maths teacher, that'd be too weird."

She smirked through her fringe at him as she swivelled her black eyes onto him to see his reaction. "And because he's really close to Naruto."

Sasuke frowned. "What does that have to do with anything?"

"Well, he and Nojiko would be there all the time to visit him. You hate the both of them."

Sasuke turned sharply to stare at his friend. "What the hell are you talking about? Sure, Naruto's annoying, but he's not that bad. And I like Nojiko."

Shitumi grinned brilliantly. Sasuke felt a feeling of dread in his stomach. This would not end well for him.

"Ha! I knew it! You do fancy her!"

"I don't, I-I just respect her. As a friend. Like you." Sasuke shoved his things into his arms and practically flew out of the room when the bell rang, saving him from Shitumi's wrath. Or so he thought.

He shoved his things into his bag with her right behind him. "Okay, but I'm just saying, it's not as much as a lost cause as you think." He thanked the heavens that she left it at that and walked away.

'Damn Shitumi and her girly instincts...' he thought furiously.

"See you later, Gaara."

"Bye, Shitumi."

Sasuke turned and walked up to his fiery-haired friend when he heard this exchange. He smacked Gaara on the back of his head with his fist.

"Oi! Stop that, you pervert, she's got a boyfriend!"

"Ow... I was only looking at her legs... it's not my fault the school shirts are so short..."

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

**A/N: Just an introductory chapter for Shitumi, based on my fifth period of school today. These guys had science in case you couldn't tell. It was also to tell you three possible candidates for Kakashi's future girlfriend/boyfriend.**


	9. Chapter 9

**A/N: I apologise in advance for the total randomness of this chapter.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto, but I do own Sasuke! My friend Jack got me a Sasuke figurine for Christmas! Isn't he sweet?**

**9**

"For God's sake, Gaara," Sasuke whispered urgently as he shot a quick glance at their teacher. S&E class of all places to have a nervous breakdown. "Will you calm down?"

"Hey, what's the freaks problem?"

Bad move Kiba.

Gaara slowly took his head off of his arms to stare at the human-canine boy in front of him. "What's my problem, Kiba?"

He leapt to his feet; the chair went with a small crash to the floor. Everyone looked up, expecting to see some unfortunate person they could laugh at, but were instead met with a very pissed off red-head.

"You want to know what my freaking problem is?!!"

"Yeah, I do or I wouldn't have asked!"

"Shitumi is my problem!"

Sasuke seized Gaara from behind and pulled him backwards before Kiba could throttle him.

"I knew it! I knew it! I've seen the way you keep perving on her! You're after my girlfriend, you gothic freak!" Kiba was bristling with rage, his fangs bared.

Gaara burst into mirthless laughter. "I'm gothic? Take a good long look at Shitumi, dog boy! If I'm gothic, what does that make her? The vampire queen?"

Kiba's face abruptly came into contact with the floor when he launched himself at Gaara, only to find that Sasuke had wrapped his arms around Gaara's torso and had flung him around in a circle to face another direction.

"Let me go, God dammit!" Gaara snarled over his shoulder at his friend.

"Hell no!" came Sasuke's reply.

"Sasuke! Just because you're too freaking afraid to admit you like Nojiko doesn't mean you can stop me from admitting I like Shitumi!!"

Sasuke nearly let go of Gaara as his face turned pink. "You promised you wouldn't tell anyone!"

Through the door walked Shitumi.

"Sorry I'm late, the psych say's I've got emotional issues or something like-" she froze in mid-sentence as she spotted Gaara still tightly wrapped in Sasuke's arms.

Her black eyebrow rose towards her hairline. "What, are you two going out or something?"

Sasuke scowled and said, "No, Shitumi, Gaara and I are not going out."

"Could've fooled me. How do you ever expect Nojiko to go out with you if you go with Gaara?"

"Shitumi!" Kiba hollered. "Gaara fancies you for Christ's sake!"

"If you say so, Kiba-baka. So when did you two get together?"

"SHITUMI!!!" three voices shouted at once.

"Oi! Am I the only one who didn't know Sasuke liked me?!" Nojiko said from the corner of the room.

"Yes." Shitumi said. "You can be so oblivious, Nojiko."

"Alright! Alright! This has gone far enough." Kurenai-sensei said as she walked towards the small group. "Shitumi, sit down, take out your book and do the work on the board. Kiba, get off of the floor and return to your seat. Sasuke, put Gaara down and the both of you need to calm down and get back to work. Whatever you need to discuss, you can do so at lunch time which is in, oh, eight minutes."

"Baptised in the river, I've seen the misery in my life and I wanna be delivered,"

"Sasuke!" Kurenai –sensei declared, looking like she'd had enough for one day. "You know the school rules."

"Sorry, sensei."

"In the city with the sinners, I've done a hundred things wrong but I swear I'm a believer-" the phone was abruptly cut off as Sasuke answered it.

"Dad, I really can't talk right n-"

"It's Anko, Sasuke."

"Anko? What are you using my Dad's phone for? Well, never mind, I'm in class, I ca-"

"Go straight outside and wait for Itachi, he's coming to pick you up. Kakashi's in hospital, he had a heart attack." She hung up the second she was done talking.

Sasuke was frozen in shock. After a good two minutes of staying completely rigid, Gaara was getting worried. He poked Sasuke in the neck, which made him snap out of it.

"Uh, Sasuke? Are you okay?"

Sasuke ran to the door, calling over his shoulder, "My dad's in hospital! Take care of my stuff til Monday, okay?"

He didn't bother to wait for an answer as he slammed the door behind him and bolted towards the front gates of the school.

Four hours later, Sasuke was once again in Deidara and Itachi's shared apartment. Kakashi didn't want him to be left alone.

"Hey, don't worry, un," Deidara said as he sat beside Sasuke on the couch. "He'll be fine. It's probably just stress; they're only keeping him in over night to make sure he stays that way. You'll just spend the night with us and we'll go get him in the morning. I'll make you some tea, ok?"

"Thanks, Deidara." Sasuke said as the blonde went into the kitchen with Itachi.

A sudden vibration from his pocket caused Sasuke to pull his phone out of his pocket, he quickly discovered he had four missed calls. "Yo."

"Hey, man, you ok? How's your dad?" Sasuke smiled at the concern in Gaara's voice.

"I'm fine, they're keeping dad in overnight though."

"Jeez, what's wrong with him?"

"He had a heart attack, but he's ok, according to the doctors and Deidara, it's just an overload of worrying and stress."

"Wow, your dad? Stressed? What a surprise, he's always so easy going and carefree. What could he be stressed about?" Gaara sounded more curious than concerned now.

"I know. I can't figure it out, either. Hey, were all four of these missed calls from you?"

"Four? No, this is only the second time I've called. I know two of them were from Shitumi, I was with her when she made them, one of them is from me and...um..."

Sasuke frowned; he knew that tone to Gaara's voice. Nothing good was going to come from this. "Yes?"

"Well, uh, don't get mad, but I gave your number to Nojiko, she wanted to talk to you."

"..."

"Sasuke? Hello? You still there? Listen, I'm sorry about today, I just lost it, I didn't mean to blurt out to our whole S&E class that you like her-"

"Gaara."

"Yeah?"

"It's ok. Really. I just didn't know what to say is all. Don't worry about it. Listen, I've got to go and interrupt before Itachi and Deidara get carried away in the kitchen."

"What do they do?" Gaara asked sounding incredibly cautious, as if he regretted asking the minute it was out of his mouth. He was straight, after all.

"Sometimes nothing. But it's always better to make sure. I walked in on them last weekend. God, that was terrifying. Talk to you later."

"See ya." With that, they both hung up and Sasuke made his way to the kitchen.

__________________________________________________________________________________

Over in Konoha hospital, two figures sat in a room, one in a bed, the other on a wooden chair beside the bed's railing.

"Well, have you thought it over yet?" the purple haired woman asked.

Kakashi sighed and ran a hand through his silver hair. "Yes, Anko, I have and I just don't know what to do."

Anko smacked him on the back of the head, forcing his forehead to almost come into contact with his knees. "I thought it is quite obvious what you should do."

He glared half-heartedly at her. "To you, maybe. You know what? I regret ever going to talk to Mikoto. I regret bringing Itachi here. In fact, I regret everything I've done in my life so far. Sasuke's the only thing in my life that I have to live for, and he's getting further and further away from me every day."

Anko restrained herself from hitting him again. "I've told you what you need to do, Kakashi. Just give him some space to breathe. He loved you, but he loves Itachi and Deidara as well. You've got to be willing to compromise. You know why Sasuke wants you to have this party, don't you?"

"He wants to set me up with someone."

"Yes. He wants you to have fun and live for someone else besides him. And I think he's right."

"I haven't got time for that, Anko."

"What?!! It's a perfectly good-"

"Not Sasuke's plan. Mikoto and Fugaku. They found out about Itachi being here. They've decided to punish me for my rudeness when we last met. Mikoto has gone to court. She wants full custody of Sasuke. She's taking my boy away from me."

**A/N: This whole thing just came to me as I was writing. I'm happy I managed to get a cliff hanger in there as well. Hope you enjoyed it.**


	10. Chapter 10

**A/N: Sorry, but I'm extremely pissed off at the moment, so I apologise if my writing is affected by it.**

**10**

Sasuke was seething. He wanted to throw something at the wall, to jump out of his window, to break something or do something stupid. How could this happen? For fourteen years, he and his father had not had a single fight, not one, and now he couldn't come home from school without them losing it at each other.

_Flashback_

_Sasuke walked up the hill to his apartment, mulling over the upcoming school dance over in his mind. 'Should I go? I hate dancing and socialising in general. But this could be my chance.'_

_"Ever heard of answering your phone?" demanded an angry voice._

_Looking up, Sasuke saw his father standing in the middle of the street, the cordless house phone in one hand and his mobile phone in the other._

_Pulling his phone out of his pocket, he looked down at the screen and saw that he had two missed calls. He looked up and shrugged. "Yeah, sorry, I didn't hear it ring with all the noise on the bus."_

_Kakashi just spun on his heal and the two of them trudged all the way to their apartment. Once inside Kakashi turned and said, "Why didn't you call me? Couldn't you have told me you were going to be late so I wouldn't have been in such a worry?!"_

_Sasuke just stared at him. He flicked his wrist up and looked at his watch. Four forty-seven. He raised an eyebrow as he continued to look at his father. "What do you mean "late"? I always get here at this time, give or take a few minutes."_

_"No you don't!!"_

_"Yes, I do. What the hell are you getting angry about?!"_

_"You're seven minutes late! Check your watch properly!"_

_"Seven minutes?! You're getting pissed off about seven bloody minutes?!!"_

_"Don't swear!"_

_"That wasn't swearing! Besides, you do it all the time!"_

_"That's different!"_

_"How?!"_

_"I'm an adult! I can do what I like, but you're a child and can't!"_

_"Why are you acting like this?! Nothing's gone wrong!"_

_"It could've while you were on the bus ignoring me! It only takes a minimum of thirty seconds for something terrible to happen, Sasuke!"_

_"If something happened I would've called you!"_

_"That's irrelevant!"_

_"How's it irrelevant?!"_

_"Don't act like you're not at fault here!"_

_"How the hell am I at fault?! What did I do wrong?!"_

_Kakashi just turned and walked away. "Whatever, Sasuke. You don't want to admit it, go ahead."_

_Sasuke just stomped down the hallway and disappeared into his room._

_End Flashback_

Sasuke pulled his laptop out and got online before logging in on MSN. Casting his eyes over the screen, he quickly noticed Sand Demon was logged on.

**Pyromaniac:** You really need to spend a little less time at the beach.

**Sand Demon:** You know I don't like the beach. I just used to live in the dessert.

**Pyromaniac:** Whatever. Listen are you going to the end of school dance?

**Sand Demon:** Probably not.

**Pyromaniac:** Does Shitumi still think we're gay?

**Sand Demon:** Yes. Are you going?

**Pyromaniac:** Nope.

**Sand Demon:** Did Nojiko turn you down?

**Pyromaniac:** I didn't ask.

**Sand Demon:** Ask now.

Sand Demon has logged off.

Sasuke stared at the screen in shock. 'What the hell?' was all that sprang to mind. Until he saw what Gaara had already spotted.

**Pyromaniac:** Hey, Nojiko.

**Shocker Shocked Ya!**: Hey, there.

**Ramen is Awesome:** Hiya, SasGAY!

**Pyromaniac:** Piss off Naruto. I wasn't talking to you.

**Shocker Shocked Ya!:** Are you using Jiraiya's computer Naruto?

**Ramen is Awesome:** Yeah.

**Shocker Shocked Ya!**: Get off. Now. Or you'll be in soooooo much trouble!

**Ramen is Awesome:** So what? What's the old pervert gonna do to me? Huh?

**Shocker Shocked Ya!**: He'll ban you from ramen for a month.

Ramen is Awesome has signed off.

**Shocker Shocked Ya!**: Well that made him move. What's up Uchiha? You seemed kind of down today and you didn't answer my call on Friday.

**Pyromaniac:** Sorry. I was in the hospital with my dad and I had to turn my phone off. He's ok and I was just preoccupied today, is all.

**Shocker Shocked Ya!**: K. How are you now?

Sasuke sat for a moment, wondering silently if he should tell her about his and Kakashi's newfound hobby of trying to rip each other's throats out.

**Pyromaniac:** I'm good. He's good. Nojiko, do you want to go to the dance with me?

Sasuke froze as he realised, too late, that instead of just saying that in his mind, he had typed it without thinking and entered it. Shit.

**Shocker Shocked Ya!**: Oh, God. Sasuke, I'm really sorry, but Sanmaru already asked me and I said yes. Please don't be mad at me.

Sasuke stopped himself from smashing his head on his laptop.

**Pyromaniac:** It's ok. Really. I was just wondering. See you at school.

Pyromaniac has logged off.

Sasuke disconnected from the internet and put his laptop away before lying on his bed and proceeding to scream into his pillow. Once he was done with this primal therapy, he rolled over onto his back and stared at the ceiling. Until his phone began to ring.

"Did you ask her?" inquired a familiar voice.

"Sanmaru got there first."

"Ouch. Tough break, man."

"Oh, well. I didn't really want to go to the stupid thing anyway."

"You're going."

"What are you talking about?"

"C'mon. We can't both be losers. I told you somebody else would get there first if you didn't make a move. So we're gonna make it at the dance. You're going."

Sasuke sighed. This was going to take effort. "Gaara, there's no point if she's with Sanmaru."

"Since when do I care?"

"We can't go without dates."

"I'm your date."

"WHAT THE HELL?!!"

"You heard me. I know it sucks..." Sasuke could almost see him cringing at his own idea. "But it's the only way. We're going."

Sasuke dropped his phone on his bed as Gaara hung up. "Great. Give Shitumi even more encouragement. As if she needs it."

**A/N: I was 7 minutes late today and my mum went nuts. That's why I was pissed off. That's where the argument came from, although in Kakashi's case, he's just over stressed about the whole custody thing. Silly Kakashi, he's just pushing Sasuke further away by doing that.**


	11. Chapter 11

**A/N: Yeah, some of the things in here actually happened in my school. I'm gonna end this soon.**

**Warning: There is bad language in this chapter.**

**11**

"Oh, cheer up will you." Gaara said as he dug his elbow into Sasuke's ribs. Sasuke winced and turned to glower at the insomniac.

"I can't believe we're going through with this." He hissed through his teeth.

Gaara gave him a stern look and said, "Yes, we are going through with it. I utterly refuse to allow you to chicken out. Now, what do you think number sixteen is?"

Sasuke glanced down at the red paper. "The Twelve Days of Christmas. Any ideas for number ten?"

"We Three Kings."

"Thanks." Sasuke scribbled the answer on the line under the picture of three men with crowns upon their heads. "Question: how exactly does figuring out Christmas carols by pictures and writing them on a piece of paper qualify as maths?"

Gaara shrugged. "Beats working. What about number eighteen?"

"All I want for Christmas is my two front Teeth. Do you know twenty-three?"

"Oh Little Town of Bethlehem." (1)

Iruka-sensei chose that moment to walk into the room. He smiled at the sight of his students having fun and working hard at the same time. If only they were this enthusiastic when it came to proper maths.

"All right, kids. Time to check your answers. We're doing it in a random order, just to be different. Whoever answers correctly gets a lolly." He said with a smile. He was in quite a good mood today. "Let's start with number... four. Who knows what it is?"

Absolutely everyone in the classroom put their hand up to offer an answer.

Iruka-sensei scanned the classroom before picking. "Choji?"

"Joy to the World."

"That's correct. Here you go." Iruka-sensei literally threw the sweet across the room. And so the class continued like this for a while.

"Number eight? Shino?"

"Oh Christmas Tree."

"Correct." Toss. "Number two? Hinata?"

"W-Walking in a Winter W-Wonderland."

"That's right." Toss. "Ten. Ino?"

"We Three Kings."

Toss. "Three. Naruto?"

"Santa Claus is coming to Town."

Toss. "Seven. Sakura?"

"I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas."

Toss. "Twelve. Gaara?"

"I Saw Three Ships."

Toss. Gaara caught it and began unwrapping the bright paper covering his prize when he caught Sasuke staring at him. "What? It's a good song."

"Nothing, it's just unlike you to offer to answer of your own free will."

"Yeah, well, I like lollies. Why are you doing it? You don't like sweets."

Sasuke shrugged. "Even Emo's like you and I need to have fun every now and again."

"Eleven. Kiba?"

"Deck the Halls."

Toss. "Nine. Tenten?"

"What's its name?"

Toss. "Sixteen. Shikamaru?"

Yawn. "The Twelve Days of Christmas."

Toss. "Twenty-two. Nojiko?"

"Silent Night."

Toss. "Thirteen. Lee?"

"Holy Night, sir!"

Toss. "Twenty-four. Akira?" (2)

"Silver Bells."

Toss. "Twenty. Neji?"

"It Fell upon a Midnight Clear."

Toss. "Fifteen. Shitumi?"

"Away in a Manger."

Toss. "Twenty-one. Sasuke?"

"Let it Snow."

As Iruka threw the treat to Sasuke, he looked down at his desk. Facing his class again, he sighed. "I was planning on handing these last eight out to the best students at the end of the day, but we've still got eight to go. So, let's carry on. Six. Choji?"

"Come all ye Faithful."

Toss. "Eighteen. Sakura?"

"All I want for Christmas is my two front Teeth."

Toss. "One. Kiba?"

"Jingle Bells."

Toss. "Fourteen. Lee?"

"The First Noel! And a very youthful song it is, sir!"

"All right, all right, calm down, Lee." Toss. "Twenty-three. Hinata?"

"Oh Little Town of Bethlehem."

Toss. "Seventeen. Tenten?"

"I Saw Mum Kissing Santa Claus."

Toss. "Nineteen. Shino?"

"Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire."

Toss. "And last but not least, number one. Gaara?"

"Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer."

As Iruka tossed a second sweet to Gaara, the class began to sing, slowly at first until everyone joined in, except for Iruka-sensei who was laughing at them all.

_"Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer, **Reindeer,**_

_Had a very shiny nose, **like a light bulb,**_

_And if you ever saw it, **saw it,**_

_You would even say it glows, **like a light bulb,**_

_Then one foggy Christmas Eve Santa came to say, **Ho Ho Ho,**_

_Rudolph with your nose so bright won't you guide my sleigh tonight, **all right,**_

_Then all the reindeer loved him, **loved him,**_

_And they shouted out with glee, **yippee!**_

_Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer you'll go down in history,** like fat cat."**_

Looking up at their still laughing sensei, the children realised that they had not only gained all their other senseis as an audience, but they had also been filmed by a video camera held by a grinning Asuma-sensei.

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Sasuke and Gaara stood side by side on the wall, Sasuke with his arms crossed and glaring at the floor, Gaara with his hands in his pockets, glaring at anybody who stared at them or came too close to the pair.

"Maybe this wasn't such a good idea," he muttered grumpily.

"You think?" Sasuke replied sarcastically with a scowl. "I told you this wasn't going to work, didn't I tell you that?"

"Oh, shut up."

The boys' simultaneously switched their gazes to the opposite side of the room where Kiba stood with his arm around Shitumi who was chatting quite happily to Nojiko who was trapped with Sanmaru's arms around her. (3)

The music in the room changed and everybody swarmed the dance floor with their partners. Sasuke and Gaara both felt like dying or killing Guy-sensei who chose that moment to saunter up to them and practically shout, "Ah, my youthful students! How lovely of you to admit your feelings of youthful affection towards one another! But why are you not dancing with the others?! Come now! Embrace your youth!"

He seized them both and almost threw them towards the dance floor. Knowing it was useless to resist his idiotic wishes, the best friends reluctantly faced each other.

"No arms on the waist," Gaara growled. "Hold my shoulders."

"We'll hold each other's shoulders; I'm no girl." Sasuke snapped. So that's what they did.

Considering how packed the place was, you'd think that everyone else would be concentrating on their own partners and not on the two boys dancing together in the very centre of the room (they could blame Guy for that as well). It really seemed like Fate hated them.

"Hey, Gaara! Sasuke! I'm glad you two finally decided to have it out in the open!" Kiba hollered across the room while Shitumi smirked and several people wolf-whistled.

Sasuke's face turned as red as the tomatoes he loved to eat and Gaara made a mental list of all the ways he could cause Kiba to have a slow and painful death.

The second the song ended, Sasuke and Gaara bolted to the boys' bathroom, where they sat across from each other.

"Well, now what are we gonna do?" Gaara demanded.

Sasuke glowered at him before saying, "Admit the truth."

"What?"

"The only reason you want to hook me up with Nojiko is because you couldn't have Shitumi. Well, you're going to have her."

"Oh, really?" Gaara said in an annoyed tone as he crossed his arms and legs on the floor. "And how are you going to do that."

"With Hinata's help."

"Huh?" That completely threw Gaara off.

"Hear me out." Sasuke switched his position so he was on his knees and stared hard at the redhead. "I always thought Kiba liked her. You did too. So that's why we were both so surprised when he asked Shitumi out. With me so far?"

Gaara nodded slowly, a cautious look on his pale face.

"Good. Now, Shino has been forced to come here before by his girlfriend and parents; he told me that every single time, halfway through and just before the end, the couples are forced to split up and the boys have to ask a girl they didn't invite before to dance with them." Sasuke eyed Gaara to make sure he was keeping up. Satisfied, he continued.

"Hinata volunteered to serve drinks and stuff this time around, so she hasn't got a date. My plan is for you to ask her to dance with you, just before the swapping partners time comes. When it happens, you and Hinata will just happen to be in front of Shitumi and Kiba, so he will naturally ask Hinata, leaving Shitumi with you. You'll talk, confess properly to her, and hopefully things will work out..." Sasuke's voice trailed off as he finished telling Gaara his plan.

Gaara gaped at him. "...That is the stupidest plan I have ever heard in my life."

Sasuke glared. "Yeah, well, it's the only one we've got."

Gaara sighed heavily "Fine."

Not wanting to waste any time as the time for the switching partners drew nearer, the pair exited the bathroom and made their way over to the shy girl behind the refreshments table.

She looked up at the boys and smiled. "Hey, g-guy's. What would you l-like?"

"Your help." Gaara said, leaning a bit towards her.

Hinata looked rather surprised. "M-My help? What do you need h-help with?"

"You like Kiba. We know you do. I like Shitumi. I need you to dance with me, until it's time to switch partners, where we'll make it so Kiba asks you and I ask Shitumi. Please, Hinata. Please?" Gaara informed her quickly, his voice getting more and more pleading as he neared the end.

After staring for a few minutes, Hinata snapped out of her daze. "Um, G-Gaara... I d-don't think this is such a g-good idea..."

Gaara literally jumped over the table, landing in front of her. He fell to his knees, pleading desperately. "PLEASE, Hinata, I'm begging you! Save me from this nightmare!"

Hinata was too kind-hearted to say no.

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Sasuke mulled over the events of the night in his head as the bus rode towards his home. It all worked out pretty well; Kiba asked Hinata and Shitumi danced with Gaara as planned. Sasuke didn't stick around for long after that.

He hopped off of the bus and began his walk down his usual route to his apartment, praying that things had continued to go well. Before he knew it, he was in front of his apartment; the summer night humidity was making him uncomfortable, so he entered as quickly as possible, eager to welcome the air conditioning on his sweaty skin.

Walking straight to the living room to let his father know that he was home early, Sasuke stopped dead, seeing a sight that confused him and sent waves of dread crashing over him; Itachi and Deidara stood in one corner of the room, beside the huge window, Kakashi and Anko stood in the doorway to the kitchen while both of the couples looked at the strange man and woman, both with black hair and eyes, standing in the centre of the room, next to the couch.

"Uh..." Sasuke said uncertainly as six pairs of eyes looked over at him, surprised by his sudden arrival. "What's going on?"

"You're coming with us, Sasuke." The strange man said gruffly.

Sasuke's eyebrows rose. "Oh, really? Why would I do that?"

The woman walked up to him and smiled. She reached a hand out and touched his face softly. "I'm your mother, Sasuke."

Sasuke's jaw dropped. 'My... mother...'

A memory suddenly jumped to his mind, something that his father had said not too long ago:

_"I went to see your mother in Kiri to ask her to see you! She doesn't want you, she never did and she never will! You're nothing to her; you don't even exist in her mind! I wouldn't be stuck with you if she did! But I was the idiot who got his life thrown away looking after some brat he didn't want!!"_

'If that was true... then what is she doing here now?'

"SASUKE!!"

His fathers' slightly hysterical voice ripped him out of his thoughts. Looking over, he saw that his father was icy pale and his eyes were frantic.

"Sasuke, get away from her!"

Sasuke frowned, now he was really confused. "Why...? What's wrong?"

"Sasuke, listen to your father, honey." Anko said, looking furiously at his mother.

"Mother and Father have filed for custody of you, Sasuke."

He looked at his brother in shock, before switching his gaze to his father, who looked as though he was about to vomit. "Dad? Is that true...?"

Kakashi swallowed hard several times before managing to spit out in a constricted voice, "Yes... yes, it is, son... they're trying to take you away from me."

Kakashi sounded like he was about to cry when he said 'take you away from me'. Realization dawned on Sasuke; everything bad that had happened between the two of them in the last couple of weeks had been because of this: Kakashi's heart attack, the arguments, trying to keep him apart from his brother, all of it. It was all because of this...

Sasuke looked up at his mother. "I... I'm sorry... mother... but I'm happy with Dad. I want to stay here." To prove he was serious, Sasuke walked around his mother, and stood beside Kakashi and Anko. Kakashi blinked back tears of joy as he hugged Sasuke from behind.

"That's not possible." Everyone stared at Itachi, who looked sadly at Sasuke. "I'm sorry, but they've already gone to court. They're going to take you, whether you like it or not."

"I KNEW IT!!" Sasuke jumped a mile in the air when his fathers' angry voice exploded in his ear. "I KNEW IT!! YOU FUCKING BASTARD!! YOU WERE IN ON THIS FROM THE BEGINNING!!"

"Actually, you're wrong about that, Kakashi." Came a voice from the doorway. The six adults and the teenager turned to see Zabuza, standing against the door, the balaclava covering his face as usual; he looked even more like a gangster in the dark light of the room.

"What are you talking about, Zabuza?!"

"I'm saying that Itachi had nothing to do with it when he first came here. He was actually being honest about why he was here. He started to help Mikoto and Fugaku after that night you and Sasuke argued." Zabuza said in his no-nonsense tone. (4)

"That's correct." Itachi stated, sounding rather angry. "The only reason I'm helping them at all is because of that. How could you do that and then just say "I'm sorry" and act like the whole thing never happened? Sasuke would be a lot better off without you, Kakashi."

Anko seized Kakashi around the waist and dragged him backwards a few paces to stop him from punching Itachi in the jaw. Turning to Itachi, she shouted, "Shut the Hell up, you! You've only been here a few months; you don't know anything about Kakashi and Sasukes' relationship!"

"All of this is pointless." Fugaku snapped. "Itachi, Sasuke. Come, now."

"Ah, go fuck yourself, Fat Nose." Deidara said over his shoulder, speaking for the first time this evening.

"WHY DOES EVERYBODY ALWAYS INSULT MY NOSE?!!"

"Forget about your nose, Fugaku." Mikoto said with a sigh. "Sasuke, go pack your things, you're coming with us, now."

"No, he's not." Zabuza stepped in front of the door, blocking Mikotos' path.

"I beg your pardon?"

"I said, he's not. I'm a lawyer. I know how the law works, and until you've got permission from a judge who's heard your case, you have no legal right to take him anywhere. You've had nothing to do with him for the last fourteen years, Kakashi has had full responsibility for him, doing it all on his own. If you want Sasuke, you'll have to fight for him, and I promise you that it will not be easy. Now get out." Zabuza moved and Mikoto and Fugaku stood still before slowly moving towards the door.

Mikoto exited in a huff. Fugaku, however, stopped and said in a low voice to Zabuza, "Uchihas' always win." before going.

The awkwardness in the room was overwhelming. Deidara quickly stood and said, "C'mon, Itachi. I don't think we're welcome here anymore, un."

They both left, Itachi stopping to say, "I'm sorry, Sasuke, but this is for your own good." at that Kakashi growled like his dogs and held onto Sasuke tighter.

Anko also left, promising to help in any way she can and to call her if they needed her, at any time. Zabuza waited until the door slammed after her and said to the pair, "I'm going to be your lawyer if you need me, okay? I'll take this as another favour."

"Thanks, Zabuza." Kakashi whispered.

"Come see Haku and I anytime you need us." And Zabuza left.

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Sasuke lay on the mattress that he and Kakashi had hauled into the living room, Kakashi being so paranoid that he hadn't wanted either of them to sleep alone that night. Sasuke had been shaking too hard to say no.

He switched his gaze from the shadow covered ceiling to look to his right, where his fathers' hair fell across his shoulder, from him lying in a position opposite from his son.

'Why did this have to happen?' Sasuke thought. 'Dad and I were perfectly happy, what happened? How could Itachi do this to me? And how the hell is this "for my own good"?'

Sasuke decided he didn't care. He wasn't going anywhere. He was staying right here with his father, nothing and nobody was ever going to take him away.

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

**A/N: Well, there you go, sorry about the wait. If anybody wants something specific in this story, you're more than welcome to request it; I don't think I've mentioned that yet. And I know absolutely nothing about law and child custody hearing, so do me a favour and give me some information if you know it, ok? Otherwise it will just be made up.**

**(1)** All of this actually happened in my maths class on the last day of school. In case you can't tell, all these questions Unicorn Sky Rider and I asked each other, her answers and questions are Gaaras' (because she's a Gaara fan girl) and Sasukes' and mine (because I'm a Sasuke fan girl).

**(2)** I know I said no OC's aside from Shitumi and Nojiko, but I have to include Akira, I just have to. You can't ignore the Little Irish Guy. And Unicorn Sky Rider would kill me if I didn't add him in.

**(3)** Same deal as Akira. I added Sanmaru because when my OC's are in the Naruto Universe, it's the same deal; Sanmaru likes Nojiko in every universe. Plus, Sasuke needed to get jealous in this fic, just because he should. Don't ignore the Closet Poet.

**(4)** Zabuza knows this because he was investigating Itachi, remember Kakashi asked him for a favour...

**BTW:** To anybody who watches Avatar, Sanmaru looks almost identical to Prince Zuko, just without the scar.


	12. Chapter 12

**A/N: I am writing this on my brothers' computer; because my other one broke and I need to buy a new one, so don't blame me if it's not perfect! I am sorry for the wait though! More use of the F word in this chapter.**

**Chapter 12**

"Jesus Christ! Why are ordinary people always transformed into lunatic parasites on Christmas Eve?!" Sasuke demanded as he and his red headed friend looked out the buses window.

Gaara shrugged. "Human nature, isn't it?"

"Well, I'm bloody glad I did my Christmas shopping in August."

Gaara rolled his jade eyes at his irritated friend. "You're insane."

Sasuke snorted at that comment and gave the insomniac a look that clearly stated "look who's talking".

"I'm serious. I'm all for being early and avoiding the crowds but that's just ridiculous."

Sasuke ignored him as he looked out the window once more at the traffic in gridlock. "God, look at them. What kind of idiot waits until it's an hour before closing time on Christmas Eve to do his shopping?"

"Sounds like something my brother would do."

"Yeah, my dad, too."

When the bus pulled into the stop at long last, the two had to sprint after they hopped out to catch the next bus before it left. And, of course, they were late for it, so they had to sit down and wait for the next one.

Gaara took this opportunity to broach the dreaded subject. "By the way... What's happening with the whole custody thing?"

Sasuke sighed. "Well, Zabuza thinks we've got a pretty good chance of winning... Apparently, they had no real grounds to start a case in the first place. But..."

"But?" Gaara prompted.

"It's not the case that worries me, it's Itachi and Deidara."

"What? Why?"

"Well... they think they're doing what's best because of what happened between me and Dad, right? But they don't understand! That was the very first and last time that anything that bad had ever happened between us! And then there's the problem with what happens **after** the case. If my mother wins, I lose my dad, but if dad wins I lose them! I don't want to choose..."

Sasuke sighed as he kicked at a few stray bits of gravel on the ground.

"Well, you know what I think you should do?"

Sasuke sighed yet again. He had a bad feeling about this. "I haven't the faintest idea; please enlighten me."

"I think you need to go to your brother and Deidara and say – BANANA'S IN PAJAMA'S!!"

"Say WHAT?!" Sasuke's head jerked up in alarm and fear for Gaara's fragile sanity and saw that Gaara was not looking at him, but at two people wearing Banana's in Pajama's costumes who were handing out flyers to passing people. Not good.

The pair looked up at the cry.

"Oh no! It's that kid again! It's HIM!!"

Both the man who had shouted and his partner sprinted off in the opposite direction and Gaara bolted after them with a quick "see ya, Sasuke!" thrown over his shoulder.

"COME BACK!! I WANT TO GLOMP YOU!!" (1)

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Sasuke let himself into number thirteen with the key Itachi had given him. He walked quickly to the living room and nearly fell flat on his face.

As he steadied himself against the wall, he saw what had made him fall: a pork sausage. The entire floor of the hallway was littered with meat. Lumps of frozen pork were everywhere, strips of bacon were stuck to the wall and several other sausages were rolling along the floor like the one that had tripped him, which was currently making its' merry way to the bathroom. (2)

"What the Hell is your problem?!"

Sasuke looked up at the sound of his brothers angry voice. Not wanting to get involved in what was obviously a very heated conversation, but not wanting his visit to have come to nothing, he leant against the wall by the slightly ajar living room door and listen quietly.

"I think I've made my problem fucking clear!" Sasuke jumped; that was Fugaku's voice.

Now Mikoto's voice joined in. "You will do as your father says, Itachi. What you and this-this idiot are doing is sick and wrong!"

"You stay out of this, both of you! You may have been able to control me while I lived with you, but I don't anymore, so you can just fuck off the pair of you!" Itachi shouted.

"How dare you!" Mikoto screeched so loudly that Sasuke's ears hurt. "How dare you speak to us like that! You listen to me: you will return to Kiri with us. You will leave your cretin boyfriend and you will marry the woman we have chosen for you, is that clear?!!"

"No I bloody well will not! You only want me to marry the bitch so you can rip all of her money off of her!" Itachi spat furiously.

"We, Itachi, are thinking about the grandchildren your wife will bare." Fugaku told his son sternly. "Your lover cannot give us that, can he?! Besides, we of the Uchiha clan are at the very centre of moral-"

"DON'T YOU SPEAK TO ME ABOUT FUCKING MORALS!!" Itachi sounded absolutely livid. "How can a person who has every corrupt judge and cop on this continent working for him working for him possibly have morals?! Tell me that!!"

Sasuke froze. That was certainly an interesting piece of information. As quickly as he could, he swung his bag around and scrounged through it for the present Shitumi had given him for Christmas. That girl was brilliant sometimes.

"I don't know what you are talking about-" Fugaku began.

"I'M TALKING ABOUT THE OH-SO-WONDERFUL-AND-HONOURABLE JUDGE DANZOU!! THE SLIMY BASTARD WHO' BEEN UNDER YOUR FUCKING THUMB FOR THE LAST SIXTEEN YEARS!!" (3)

"All right. I admit Danzou has been working for me and still does. Yes, Danzou is a crooked judge, but nobody knows that and you'll never prove it. Itachi, if you continue to disobey us, you will have nothing. We expect you in Kiri by noon tomorrow. Mikoto, come."

Sasuke launched himself into the nearest closet and listened closely to the door opening and closing, followed by the front door doing the same thing.

"Well... I guess you're getting married, huh?"

The sound of Deidara's voice coming from the living room startled Sasuke. Apparently the blonde artist had been in there the entire time. His voice, however, was not the same. It had none of its usual hyperactive cheer, it sounded somehow... hollow. Almost dead.

"What are you talking about?" Itachi murmured in a low voice. "I'm not gonna marry her, I promise."

"You have to or your parents will-"

"To Hell with them and what they want! They can't control me! I've spent my entire life bending to their will, dong what they want. Now it's time for me to choose what **I** want."

There was a strange rustling sound, as if Itachi had shifted his position on the couch. Unable to resist taking a peak, being the curious creature that he was, Sasuke discovered that the living room looked like a battle field with all the shattered remains of the furniture everywhere, Deidara also looked like a mess with his golden hair loose and wild and Itachi was on his knees in front of his boyfriend, both looking into each other's eyes.

"I want you, Deidara," Itachi continued, his voice ringing with devotion and affection. "I love you."

Deidara smiled softly. "I love you, too, un."

Itachi leant his face upwards and Deidara leant his face downwards and Sasuke decided to leave before he accidentally interrupted such a sweet moment.

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

**A/N: Well, there you go. You know the drill, so I'm not going to annoy you with it.**

BTW: Sorry about Mikoto, but she has to be a bitch for this too work.

(1) Unicorn shouted this out of the school bus window once. She's been begging me to put this in ever since.

(2) If you've read other people's reviews for this story, you know where this came from (the bacon bit, anyway).

(3) Danzou was the only character who fit this part. And yes it is relevant for the rest of the story.


	13. Chapter 13

**A/N: YAY!! I GOT MY COMPUTER BACK!! SORRY FOR THE WAIT!!**

**13**

Sasuke swallowed hard at the thought of what awaited him outside his bedroom door, in the kitchen. Namely: dinner.

"Oh, shut up!" He snapped down the phone line. "You'd be nervous too if you had my dad!"

Neji continued to laugh hartily. "I thought you said your dad's cooking is delicious?"

"It is when it's edible."

" . . . Sorry, you lost me there."

Sasuke sighed. "Dad's a great cook when the food is edinble. He likes to experiment a lot, so sometmes he could be trying a recipe for, I don't know, a seafood platter or something and it turns into gravy."

" . . ."

"Thick gravy. The kind that's hard to swallow."

"SASUKE!! DINNER!"

"Well, I'm off to meet my doom. I'll talk to you later if I'm still alive." And he hung up on Neji as the long-haired boy continued to laugh at him.

Seven minutes later, Sasuke found out that his father had indeed, attempted to make something and ended up with thick gravy.

"Um, Sasuke?"

Sasuke looked up from attempting to shovel a pathway out of his food to look at his father. "Yeah, what's up?"

"Well, um . . . if you don't like the food, I can make you something else; we've got lots of leftovers in the fridge . . ."

The fourteen year old leant back in his seat aa he put down his cutlery and looked the older man in the eye. "That's not what you were going to say. Spit it out, Dad, it can't be that bad."

Kakashi sighed, pushed away his meal and his knife and fork, slouching back into his seat with his eyes closed, as if he was thinking deeply. Seeming to come to a decision, he leant over the table with his forearms resting on it and looked his son in the eyes.

Lots of people were creeped out by Kakahsi's eyes, the right one liquid onyx black, exactly like Sasukes', the left one a bright blood red. Sasuke didn't mind, his dad was unique through and through, from his mismatched eyes, to his lazy and carefree attitude, to his eccentric cooking and Sasuke never once wished he could be raised by someone else. He just wished a few other people would realise that.

"Well . . . God, how do I start this . . . ? Well, Sasuke, do you remember much about your grandfather?"

Sasuke frowned as he thought. A few hazy memories played in his mind, he wasn't even sure if those were real or not. The only ones that were solid were the day of Sakumo's funeral and when they visited him in hospital the day he died, when he gave Sasuke the white teddy bear that was currently sitting on his bed. Yes, he still had that teddy bear and no, he was not embarrassed by it.

Realising his father was waiting for an answer, Sasuke shook his head and said, "No, not besides when he gave me Sakumo." Yes, he named the thing after his grandfather.

Kakashi knew Sasuke must have remembered more than that, but he wouldn't say because that was a touchy subject with him and Sasuke didn't want to upset him.

"But you do know how he wasn't . . . uh . . . you know," he struggled to find a way to say this diplomatically, but no way was apparent so he just said it anyway. "He wasn't happy when you were born. He thought I'd screwed up my life basically."

Sasuke shrugged. Yeah, he knew it.

"Well . . . after that happened, because you were illegitimate and everything, he wanted me to get married as soon as I turned eighteen. Obviously, that didn't happen, but I was talking to Zabuza, and he thought that if we-"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa!" Sasuke yelled, holding his hands up in a halting gesture. "Hold on a second, slow down and continue."

Kakashi took a deep breath and did as his son asked. "All right. Because you're fourteen years old, you have the right to choose who you want to live with, right? So the only way you'll end up with Mikoto is if the court finds me to be an unfit parent. With me so far?"

Sasuke nodded, with a frown on his face, still unsure of exactly where this was going.

"You see, Zabuza's been looking at past cases and found out that the courts tend to favour sending a child to a home with two parents. In custody battles like this, oh, say, a father and a stepmother over an unmarried mother. So . . ."

Sasukes' jaw dropped. NOW he knew what this was all about.

Kakashi carried on talking, totally oblivious to the expression on the teenage boy's face. "So, we both thought, to make the case stronger, I should . . . you know . . . get married."

When Kakashi looked up, Sasuke had already slumped back into his seat and had begun to shovel the gooey stuff that was his dinner. "So? What do you think?"

Sasuke held out a spoon of said gooey stuff for his father to observe. "I think you shouldn't experiment with your cooking for her anytime soon." (1)

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Sasuke dialled the number quickly and put the mobile to his ear, waiting impatiently for his friend to answer.

"Yo, the Jokers little sis is on the line."

Sasuke rolled his eyes. "For Christs Sake, Shitumi quit saying that every time you answer your phone."

"Dude, have you seen The Dark Night? I swear to God, I thought someone had been stalking my brother."

"Does your brother wear make-up?"

"No. Not unless Nojiko's uncle gets to him. Then he's powerless to defend himself."

". . . Wonderful. And yes, you know I saw that movie, Shitumi, we went to the movies to see it together. You started shrieking about your brother and the Joker as soon as he stabbed that pencil into the other guys' eye."

"Dimitri would do that. You admitted it yourself. I am the Jokers little sister."

"Right, right, now shut up and listen. My plan worked, Dad says he wants to get married."

". . . "

"Shitumi? You okay?"

". . . Hmm? Oh, yeah, that's great. Well done."

". . . What happened?"

Sasuke heard a quiet rasping sound and started. "Shitumi, are you actually crying?"

"No, I was choking."

"You didn't answer the first question. What's wrong?"

". . . Kiba and I broke up."

". . . Shit, really?"

"Yeah. Ever since the dance . . . well, he was acting weird and I realised Hinata was the one he really wanted. He didn't cheat on me or anything, but he wasn't as happy with me as he would've been with her."

". . . Geez, I'm sorry, Shitumi."

"It's okay, he's still my Kiba-baka. Anyway, I'll be o- AH! WHAT THE HELL?! DIMITRI!!! DID YOU FORGET TO PAY THE ELECTRIC BILL?!!"

"What happened?"

"All the freaking powers out!! Oh, no, wait a light's still on in the- backyard?!"

"I didn't know you had a light in your back garden. I didn't even know you had a back garden."

"I don't have a light in my- OH MY FUCKING GOD!!!! DIMITRI!! ARE YOU INSAANE?!!"

Over the phone, Sasuke could here Shitumi's older brother say in his monotone, "You said I was the Joker. And he burnt a pile of money so-"

"YOU THOUGHT YOU WOULD?!!!!"

"Yeah. Isn't it pretty?"

"AS IF WE AREN'T BROKE ALREADY!!! ...It is pretty though."

Sasuke chuckled lightly. Those two . . . each one of a kind and perfectly suited as brother and sister. Even if Sasuke sometimes thinks Shitumi should have been born first.

"Is that the little emo kid?"

Sasuke jumped as he heard Dimitri on the phone, addressing him. Shitumi must have given it to him as she admired the "pretty" fire. "It's Sasuke." He answered.

"Good. Tell the little dog boy if I ever catch him making Shitumi cry again, I'll go over to his house and chop off his limbs and send them to his pretty sister. Understand?"

". . . Kiba's "pretty" sister."

"Yeah. Hana's hot."

And he hung up. Sasuke stared at the wall for a minute or too as he debated with himself on whether or not he should tell Gaara. He decided that yes he should.

So, four minutes later . . .

"YESSS!!"

"Oh, God, my ears!!"

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

**A/N: I tried to make it long. Or, longer, than usual.**

**(1)** Yes, I am a W.I.T.C.H fan.


	14. Chapter 14

**A/N: All right, I am ending this fic as soon as possible.**

**A big thank you to Quisty05, the comments in your reviews gave me a good laugh.**

**Another thank you to HANAJIMA UCHIHA for telling me all I needed to know on child custody, it was very kind of you.**

**14**

Sasuke walked into his room like a ghost. He closed his bedroom door and stood right next to his window on the furthest side from the door. Looking down, he saw the water droplets hit his floor. It took him a moment to realise they were his tears.

A dull ache of pain went through him as his knees hit the wooden floor. He seized his hair in his clenched hands, not even wincing when his nails bit into his scalp, holding his head like this was the only thing stopping him from ramming his fist through the window.

All the events of today ran through his mind so fast he almost became dizzy. He leapt to his feet and ran to the bathroom located exactly outside his bedroom door, thankfully, he wouldn't have been able to hold it in over a further distance.

As he let loose the contents of his stomach in the sink, his hands clenched around the basin even tighter than they had on his scalp, his knuckles pale white. Gasping, he looked up into the mirror. He knew he was good-looking, but he didn't want to look like this. To look like an Uchiha. He'd seen a few of them with features like his; sharp but soft features, pearly white skin, jet-black hair.

The one thing he did like was his eyes. Because his father had identical ones: liquid onyx, eyes that showed emotion. The Uchiha eyes were stone onyx: they felt nothing at all.

'Why? Why did this have to happen? What did we do to deserve this?!'

Looking around the room, he suddenly felt very claustrophobic. He couldn't handle this. It would kill him. He couldn't stand this anymore!

His rage overcame him as he slammed his fist into the mirror, shattering the glass and splashing his blood on the shards. Pulling his hand back, he turned and opened the door, running down the short hall to the front door which he opened and slammed.

He ran down the concrete stairs, clenching his fists when he finally made it out into the streets. The rain pounded on him as he ran, mixing in with the shards of glass still lodged in his open wound, pulsing pain up through his arm. He didn't care. He had no room for pain in his system, his rage, instead of calming as he continued to think about today, just increased as he ran, faster and faster.

Someone had to pay for this. He had a list, actually, of people who deserved to have him beat them to death, but at the moment he was heading to the closest person on his list.

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Kakashi stood in the graveyard behind the Konoha shrine. He felt so lost. Zabuza had to drive him and Sasuke home; he had been in shock ever since he heard the verdict.

Kakashi looked down at his best friends' grave. He felt a grim smile come on his face when he remembered that Obito, the very best friend he had ever had, had been an Uchiha; a member of the family that was destroying his life at the moment.

'How ironic.'

Even more so was the fact that out of all his old friends, Obito was the only one who supported his decision to keep Sasuke. Asuma, Kotetsu, Izumo, his own father... Everyone he knew told him to put Sasuke up for adoption, saying that having a child at his age would destroy his life.

For years, it stayed this way. Until his father died. When that happened, all the others suddenly realised that their negative attitudes had just made things worse, that they needed to help instead of let him carry the burden on his own. For the next five years, everything had been perfect.

Until Obito died as well. That had been the darkest period of his life. Somehow, he had managed to get through it with his sanity intact.

Suddenly, that darkness that had nearly swallowed him when Obito died came back, tenfold. This time, he had not lost a friend who was more like a brother. He had lost his son. His flesh and blood. Seeing his father's grave, the silver-haired man stomped towards it, feeling the urge to kick it in. Sakumo Hatake. He had been the worst person in Kakashis' life, the villain of every childhood nightmare, the worst negative voice against his decisions.

Over come with anger, Kakashi through his head back and roared at the heavens, "Is this your doing?!! Was I such as disappointment to you that you have to take away the best thing in my life?!! I hope your laughing up there, old man, when I get up there you'll never laugh again!!!"

Seething, he stomped back to Obitos' grave. Feeling the rush of anger in his body become sorrow, he felt tears well up in the corners of his eyes.

"I..." the tears leaked down, seemingly impossible to stop. "Obito... I don't know what to do..."

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

"Will you stop glaring at me like that?" Itachi snapped in an annoyed voice.

"No, un." Deidara snapped back. "This is wrong and you know it!"

"Deidara, we've already had this conversation. This is the best thing for Sasuke."

"Does he get a say in this?"

"If he did, he'd say it would be best to stay with Kakashi. We've already been over this!" Itachi sighed, suddenly sounding very tired. Someone slammed their fist into the front door repeatedly, but they both ignored it.

The last thing Itachi wanted or needed was a fight with Deidara. He calmed himself before saying in a much quieter voice. "I'm sorry, Dei, but I believe I did what's right, and it's already done, so can we please not fight?"

"ITACHI! ARE YOU IN THERE?!! I NEED TO TALK TO YOU!!"

Itachi and Deidara jumped. Itachi hurried to the door and opened it quickly. His jaw dropped and his eyes widened. Sasuke stood in front of him, soaking wet with blood running down his right hand. Without a word, Itachi seized the boy and dragged him into the apartment, continuing to pull him into the living room after he locked the door. Deidaras' eyes widened at the sight of Sasuke, just as his lovers had.

"Sasuke! What are you doing- What the hell happened to your hand, un?!!"

Sasuke looked down at his hand in what seemed to be genuine surprise. "I smashed a mirror."

When he looked back up, Itachi thought he had never seen anyone look so... vulnerable? Miserable? Dead? Lost? He couldn't name it, but it was horrible to see his own brother look like it.

The water ran down Sasukes' face, making his fringe stick to his skin as he spoke, sounding like he was going to cry. "How could you do this?"

Itachi tried to sound gentle. "I did what I thought was best for you."

Sasuke slowly shook his head. "How... could you think this was for the best? I understand you would think dad was a bad guy after you saw what happened when we fought, but to go this far..."

"You haven't been raised properly, Sasuke, he's not a good fa-"

"Haven't been raised properly?!" Sasuke shouted. "At least I don't go barging into other peoples' lives, pretending to care about them and then screwing everything up for them!!"

"Pretending?! I didn't pretend to care about you-!"

"If you really cared you wouldn't have done this! And don't tell me you think Fugaku would be a better father than Kakashi! He interferes and controls even more than you do, I know you hate him more than anyone!!"

Itachi was livid. He barely heard Deidara mumble something about leaving them to deal with this on their own as he left the apartment.

"I don't dispute the fact that I hate him, nor do I think he would be a good father, I just wanted you away from Kakashi! And, if you'd be so kind, could you tell me exactly how I "screwed up everything" for you?!!"

"I have to go to Kiri! My whole life is here, a good, happy life! And it's been uprooted in favour of another life where I can't see any happiness at all ahead!!"

"Who cares about happiness?! As long as you're safe, that's all that matters!" Itachi sounded sure of himself, just like always, but, on the inside, he was starting to squirm with a strange suspicion that maybe this time he had been wrong, the same suspicion that had been in his head ever since the court ruled in Mikoto and Fugaku's favour.

"That doesn't make any fucking sense at all!! And you know what?! Dad was right about you! If I'd have just stayed away from you, none of this would have happened!!"

Desperate to squash these feelings, Itachi shouted the first thing that came to mind. "Your father is a moron who doesn't think about anything but his own happiness! He clings to you and it's disgraceful-"

Sasukes' blood coated Itachis' face as his right fist slammed into his brothers' jaw.

"SHUT UP, ITACHI!! YOU DON'T KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT MY DAD!!"

"I know way more than you do! He didn't get custody of you because of his criminal record!" Itachi blurted out from his position on the floor before thinking it through.

Sasuke froze up. When Kakashi was fourteen, just before Sasuke was born and Kakashi found out he had a son, Kakashi had sneaked into a club with Obito and was talking to some strange men. What he hadn't known was that these strange men were drug dealers. And, unfortunately, the police chose that night to raid the club. So Kakashi got charged on associating with criminals. But that happened so long ago . . . How did Itachi know about that? How could Itachi know about that?

Then, suddenly, everything made sense. Speaking slowly, Sasuke said, "You tipped the judge off about Dad's charge . . . didn't you?"

"Yes, I did."

Sasuke looked like he was made of stone. Minutes past and Itachi was beginning to get worried when suddenly:

"YOU BASTARD!!!"

Sasuke lunged at him and caught his throat. The two wrestled on the floor while Sasuke attempted to throttle his big brother, before Itachi finally managed to get a good grip on him and throw him across the room.

Sasuke jumped up and began to slam his forehead into the wall in rage, while Itachi gasped and tried to breathe properly as he watched his little brothers' violent action.

The boy spun around to shout at the elder man, blood streaming down his face now as well as his hand. "YOU ARE THE MOST EVIL – ARRRGGHHH!!!"

"You're right! You're right!" Itachi shouted to stop Sasuke from continuing to smash his head into the wall, afraid he would get seriously hurt. It did the trick.

"And I'm sorry! I – I just had such a crap father and I saw what happened with you and Kakashi and I didn't want you to go through what I did and I thought I was doing the right thing and I know I've messed everything up for you and I'm just- I'm sorry!!" Itachi bellowed with all of the little breath he had managed to suck in after Sasuke had crushed his throat.

There was silence except for the panting breath of the brothers as Sasuke stared at Itachi in an eerily calm way with a stoic expression. Itachi made a little sound of distress as he felt Sasukes' arms circle his neck.

"Oh-it's a hug, a hug's good." He said in relief as he patted Sasukes' back before the boy pulled away from him.

"Well- now what are we going to do?"

Itachi thought for a minute and said, "Well, first you better get home and have a good long sleep. Mother and Father are coming for you at ten o'clock, if I'm going to fix the mess I've made, I've got a lot of work to do before then."

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

**A/N: Expect an update Friday afternoon, Saturday or Sunday. If I haven't got too much homework, I might update during the week.**


	15. Chapter 15

**A/N: You get to see the mysterious, Joker-like Dimitri in this chapter. Other than that, it's just total randomness.**

**15**

Now that the euphoria of Itachi's declaration had worn off, Sasuke felt the doubt, fear and depression seep into him. Luckily, Mikoto and Fugaku had a big problem back home in Kiri; Sasuke was allowed to stay with his dad until Saturday. Which meant that he came to school Monday morning in a foul mood.

He waited grumpily outside his English class for his best friend. Gaara had a family therapy appointment this morning and Shino and Neji both had separate classes on Monday mornings, so he had no one to rant to all morning. This meant he was even more pissed off now than he had been when he arrived. Suddenly spotting a shock of red, Sasuke turned.

And stared.

Gaara wasn't walking. He was skipping.

Gaara.

_Skipping._

He lurched toward his friend with a twirl and a tap of his foot. He grinned his usual psychotic grin, though this one certainly had a different meaning behind it.

"Good morning to you, my best buddy, on this day where the world is perfect and everyone in it is beautiful, even Naruto."

"Are you on drugs?"

"These psychs' seem to be trying a stronger anti-depressant this time." Called a stoic voice, though it was tinged with bright amusement.

Glancing over his shoulder, Sasuke saw Neji and Shino staring at Gaara in amusement and slight concern for his fragile sanity. At least, Sasuke assumed Shino was staring. After all, there wasn't a single person in their class who wasn't.

They entered the classroom quickly, Gaara humming the whole time, Sasuke jumping when he saw that his brother was subbing the class today. Great.

It was just when they were starting to work on the book work when it hit Sasuke what made Gaara so happy. "So Shitumi's your girlfriend, is she?"

Gaara's psychotic grin made a reappearance.

"Is there something you four would like to share with the class?"

The boys looked up to see Itachi looming over them. Sasuke, Shino and Neji froze. But not because Itachi had caught them.

"Oh no," Shino muttered.

"This won't end well," Neji added with a gulp of dread.

"You really shouldn't have suggested that." Sasuke informed his half-brother.

Itachi raised his eyebrows. Gaara's grin widened incredibly as he answered Itachi's question. "Y'know what? I think I will share it with the class. If that's okay with you?"

The other three silently prayed. Itachi simply shrugged and said "Go for it."

So much for the power of prayer.

Gaara stood up, pulled out his chair and jumped on top of it. Drawing in a deep breath, Gaara called out, "OI! Everyone! Listen up!"

Everybody immediately turned their heads. The class as a whole drew in a bated breath. They saw him this morning, and, as all these kids had been in the same class all year for the compulsory subjects, they had seen Gaara go into meltdown form before. They could read the signs. His grin wasn't helping, either.

"Everyone remember one of our S&E classes last year? Where you all found out I liked Shitumi? Well, they weren't rumours! I, Gaara Subaku, am madly in love with Shitumi! I want that clear right now! I'm in love with her and we're going out! TAKE THAT KIBA!!"

Everyone turned for said Dog Boys reaction. Though he looked a little pissed, he smirked and said, "Yeah, well, she's just a mate now. Don't worry, psycho, I'm with Hina-chan now."

He smirked across the room at her and Hinata flushed with pleasure.

Gaara hopped off the chair and looked around, a little unsure about what to do.

Itachi crossed his arms and said, "Are you done now?"

Shitumi walked through the door. "Sorry, peoples, I had to go to Old Man Sarutobi cuz I told Genma to fuck off-"

Shitumi took in the sight of her boyfriend. "Gaara, what are you doing?"

"Declaring my love for you." He replied in a monotone, causing Sasuke, Shino and Neji to face-plant behind him. They looked up again when Shitumi shrieked. Gaara was holding her in a fireman's carry as he spun around violently (although the violent part was probably unintentional).

"GAARA!! PUT ME DOWN, GOD DAMN IT!!"

She shrieked his name again when he didn't listen. Then she got an idea. Drawing in a breath, she screamed, "DIMITRI!!"

"_Dimitri?!"_ Kiba said, his voice shooting up an octave. No one blamed him, though. _Everyone_ was scared of Dimitri. "What's he doing _here_?!!"

"He had to talk to Sarutobi about me swearing at Genma."

The slightly ajar door swung open to reveal Shitumi's older brother. He was pretty tall, about six-five, with an extremely thin yet muscular body and short and shaggy brown hair. He would've been good-looking enough to make a heavy majority of the girls (both teacher and student alike) at the school drool at the sight of him. If it weren't for the fact that he only had one eye.

Where his left eye should have been was a kanji tattoo, which said "hatred". His remaining eye was onyx black, identical to Shitumi's. Said eye was currently half-lidded in a lazy, bored fashion.

"Shitumi, what have you done no-" he cut himself off as his half-lidded gaze soon became a wide one, nearly bugging out of his head.

"Gaara." Neji said, the only one brave enough to speak in Dimitri's presence, which currently oozed a promise of pain. "Put Shitumi down and back away. Slowly."

Unfortunately for Gaara, he was too slow in taking Neji's advice for Dimitri's liking. Said man strode towards the redhead in a flash, seized Shitumi, threw her over his own shoulder in exactly the same fashion Gaara had, and threw Gaara across the room by his arm.

Dimitri was halfway out the door when Shitumi interrupted him by saying, "Uh, Dimitri? You do realise I'm suppose to stay in school . . . right?"

Dimitri shrugged, almost causing Shitumi to roll off his shoulder onto the floor. "School, schmool. I didn't even go."

Everything was silent until Dimitri's voice floated back to them from outside. "Wait a- Why am I carrying you?! You can walk!!"

Followed by a thud and loud swearing from Shitumi as she hit the concrete.

**__________________________________________________________________________________**

Itachi drove Sasuke home that day, telling him that he and Zabuza had managed to finagle a second custody hearing. He even managed to get it done on the Saturday, so Sasuke wasn't forced to spend any time with Mikoto and Fugaku. His plan was in action.

**__________________________________________________________________________________**

**A/N: Told you, random. **


	16. Chapter 16

**A/N: Last chapter.**

**16**

_Rap, rap, rap._

"Enter!"

Itachi walked into the office. Danzous' aged face lit up with surprise at the sight of him. "Itachi-san. I had not expected to see you today."

"Danzou-sama." Itachi bowed to show his non-existent respect for this man that he loathed. "I am here to discuss the custody hearing for my half-brother with you."

"There is no need. Fugaku-san has already gone over the details with me."

"I know. That's why I'm here."

Danzou raised his eyebrows.

Itachi leant forward in the chair he had sat in, his hands resting on the judges oak wood desk. "I need you to find in Kakashi's favour. I want Sasuke to live with him."

Danzou stared at him before bursting into laughter. "You must be joking!"

"I don't joke."

Danzou abruptly became serious when he realised this was true. "What on Earth do you think you're doing? This is a betrayal of the Uchiha clan!"

"To Hell with the Uchiha clan!" Itachi yelled, throwing his arms into the air.

"Well said." Danzou and Itachi both jumped and looked over at the oak door that had opened and closed silently during their discussion. The man before them looked to be in his early thirties with long black hair that spiked out at odd angles, pearly pale skin and deep crimson eyes. Danzou's face twisted into a mask of horror and fear at the sight of the man. Itachi, on the other hand, smiled at him and said, "Hey, there, old man."

The man gave Itachi an eerie smirk and said, "Humph. So rude to your poor old Uncle and after all the help I'm giving you."

Itachi was smiling as he turned to face Danzou once more, as his Uncle walked to stand behind him and placed a hand on his shoulder.

"M-M-Madara-s-sama . . ." Danzou stuttered out. He tried again after he had regained control over his voice, but you could still see the transparent fear in his eyes.

"Danzou." Madara spoke in a polite voice but you could see the delighted sadistic glint in his ruby eyes.

"How . . . How can I help you?"

Madara sat in the chair besides Itachi and folded his hands on his stomach, looking perfectly at ease. "Well, Itachi-kun called me and said that he needed to make amends for a mistake he made, so, as his long-time teacher and friend, I'm only too happy to assist him. In any way I can."

Danzou gulped audibly.

"So, Danzou, here's the deal: you grant custody of Sasuke to Kakashi and we'll leave you in peace." Itachi informed him.

"The other option is," Madara paused for a moment before saying, "Well, I don't think you really want to know."

Danzou cleared his throat as he attempted to speak. "Well, I, uh, of course I would accept your offer, but, you see, uh, Fugaku-san is one of my most important, um, associates, you see, so I, um, couldn't exactly-"

"Oh, I think you'll find it more, ah, _beneficial_, to be one of our associates." Madara said casually.

Itachi pulled out a set of documents and handed them over to Danzou. As Danzou read over them, Itachi said, "As you can see, I have claimed my share of the Clan profits in the many investments I played a part in. I think you'll find you'll be getting quite a good bargain out of this hearing."

Danzou stuttered out, "Th-that's quite a hefty amount of money, I-Itachi-san."

Riffling through a bit further, Danzou removed a sheet of paper with many names on it. Very specific names. "What's this?"

Madara smiled. "That is a list of all the men and women that work for me, have been helped by me, have sworn their loyalty to me and are always eager to pay their debts to me in any and every way possible."

"B-b-but . . . this is a list of almost ninety percent of all the gang leaders, mafia workers and the wealthiest business men in the world!!!"

Madara's smile widened. "I know. Now, I don't have any bent men of the law on that list on principal, but in this case, I just might make an exception. After all, most of the men on there aren't huge fans of yours, are they? If I add you to my list, they won't dare touch you. But . . . Go against my wishes and they just might think now is as good a time as any to get payback."

Itachi then pulled out a tape recorder "This is something my brother gave me to help. I think you might want to consider it into your decision as well." He hit the play button.

**"I don't know what you are talking about-**

**I'M TALKING ABOUT THE OH-SO-WONDERFUL-AND-HONOURABLE JUDGE DANZOU!! THE SLIMY BASTARD WHO'S BEEN UNDER YOUR FUCKING THUMB FOR THE LAST SIXTEEN YEARS!!**

**All right. I admit Danzou has been working for me and still does. Yes, Danzou is a crooked judge, but nobody knows that and you'll never prove it. Itachi, if you continue to disobey us, you will have nothing. We expect you in Kiri by noon tomorrow. Mikoto, come."**

He hit the stop button and looked up at said corrupt judge. Itachi thought the old man was about to faint.

The black telephone began to ring. Danzou tried to press the reject call button, but his shaking hands hit the speaker button.

"Danzou?"

The three men jerked their heads toward the phone. Danzou's eyes flickered back and forth between Madara and the phone, his fear almost contagious. "Orochimaru, now isn't a good time."

"Now's the only time, Danzou. You see, I've heard that the Uchiha boys custody is in your hands. I like the look of him. He's a strong boy with a brilliant mind. He's perfect for a future employee. Besides, a little friend of mine says she would be devastated if he were taken away. I think you can guess where this is going. I've got considerable influence. I want that boy to stay in Konoha with his father. Understand? I do hope you make the right choice."

And he hung up.

"Well," Madara said as he stood up to go, "I think that pretty much sums up our meeting. I, too, hope you make the right choice, Danzou. Itachi and I will be attending the hearing later. Good bye."

__________________________________________________________________________________

"That was a dirty trick you guys," Sasuke said to the two Uchiha's in front of him. "Really dirty. Thank you."

"You're welcome." Madara said. "But it wasn't just us."

"Yeah, Orochimaru's got brilliant timing." Itachi agreed.

"Orochimaru?" Sasuke asked with a frown. That name rang a bell for some unfathomable reason.

"Attention, everyone!"

All the people in Sasuke and Kakashi's apartment turned to face their host. Kakashi held his beer in the air and said, "First off, I'd like to thank you all for coming to this party to celebrate this triumph for me and my son, Sasuke." Kakashi nodded to where Sasuke stood by his brother and Uncle. "To Family!"

Everyone raised their glasses. "Family!"

"I'd also like to thank a few certain people, without whose help, we couldn't have won this fight. Zabuza, Itachi and Madara for their help with the case and Deidara and Anko for all their support, patience and encouragement." Kakashi nodded to each of the five as he said their names. "To you guys!"

The guests once more raised their glasses in a toast.

"Before you return to the party and stop having to listen to an old man like me, I have just one more announcement. Events like this in life makes you want to prioritize and live properly, to do things you normally would be too intimidated to do. So, here and now, ladies and gentlemen, I will do something I should've done much, much sooner."

Kakashi put done his beer bottle and walked through the crowd to where Anko stood beside Zabuza and Haku. In one fluid motion, Kakashi fell to one knee and opened the fist he had kept clenched throughout the whole party. "Marry me?"

"YES!!"

As Anko crushed Kakashi in a hug, all the guests broke into wild cheers and applause. Kakashi, now released from a screaming with joy Anko, sought out his son.

Kakashi smiled sheepishly as he rubbed the back of his head. "You okay with Anko as a stepmother?"

Sasuke grinned. "Yeah. Let's just hope she doesn't make thick gravy."

Neji burst into laughter.

Kakashi stared blankly. "What?"

"Never mind, Dad."

After offering their congratulations to the happy couple, Shino, Neji, Gaara and Shitumi came to Sasuke to talk about today.

"So, can I tell Molnija that you're definitely staying?"

Sasuke looked at Shitumi like she was nuts. She is, actually, but that's besides the point. "Who the bloody Hell is "Molnija"?!"

Shitumi rolled her eyes at his ignorance. "It's my brothers nickname for Nojiko."

"How did he get "Molnija" out of "Nojiko"?!"

Shitumi slapped him on the back of his head. "Baka! "Molnija" is Russian for "Lightning"!! Nojiko likes storms so . . ."

"Your brother speaks Russian?" Shino asked, sounding about as interested as he can get.

"Yep." She sighed heavily. "If only he'd teach me his Russian swear words he's so fond of saying, then I wouldn't get into trouble."

It finally hit Sasuke. "Orochimaru!" he said in surprise. His friends stared at him, but he didn't notice. Last year, Nojiko had said she and Naruto sometimes stayed with their deceased parents old friends, Jiraiya, Tsunade and Orochimaru!

"Shitumi," Sasuke said, "I never told Nojiko about the possibility of leaving. You did, though, didn't you?"

Shitumi grinned unrepentant. "She's my best friend and she was worried about you. She really likes you, you know."

Sasuke smiled. "Y'know what, Shitumi? I think she does."

_Besides, a little friend of mine says she would be devastated if he were taken away._

__________________________________________________________________________________

The bell chimes rang out loudly as soon as Sasuke pressed the button. About a minute later, the door opened to reveal the person Sasuke most wanted to see.

"Hiya, Sasuke, what's up?" Nojiko asked, cyan eyes wide with surprise.

"I wanted to thank Orochimaru for helping with the case."

"Oh. Ah – come in."

Nojiko led him up the penthouses stairs. Trying to make conversation, Sasuke mentioned the first thing he observed. "So – you like purple and black, huh?"

Nojiko glanced at him over her shoulder, then down at her black track pants and bright purple T-shirt. "Yeah, they're awesome colours."

"Hn. You look really pretty." He smacked himself mentally.

"Thank you." She knocked on a wooden door and a man with long black hair, sickly pale skin and gold eyes opened the door, given the teenagers a creepy smile. "Well, well. What do we have here?"

Nojiko looked up at him, but it wasn't that much of a stretch. She and Naruto had both grown considerably taller over the holidays, so she was almost at eye level with him. "Orochimaru, this is Sasuke. Sasuke, Orochimaru."

Sasuke bowed to the man. "Thank you very much for your help with the custody case."

Orochimaru's smile became even more sinister. "You're very welcome, I thought it would be a shame for Konoha to lose such a brilliant mind." He directed his creepy smile at Nojiko this time. "But it wasn't completely my idea. I hope I see you, Sasuke." And he closed his office door again.

When Sasuke was about to exit the front door again, he turned to Nojiko and said, "You don't like him very much do you?"

"No."

"So why did you ask him to help me?"

"Well, he's got the most influence of all the adu-" Nojiko slapped a hand over her mouth. Lowering it after a minute, she said, "How did you know it was me?"

Sasuke shrugged. "I've never met him before. So why would he help me? Then I remembered how you said you and Naruto were going to be staying with him, Jiraiya and Tsunade."

Sasuke hesitated before saying. "Why did you want to help me?"

Nojiko looked down at the floor, her face bright pink. "I . . . would've missed you if you'd have left."

"At the school dance last year . . ."

"You mean when Shitumi laughed up her lungs over you and Gaara?"

Sasuke winced. "Yeah, that one. Most embarrassing night of my life. You went with Sanmaru."

". . . Yeah. . . ?"

". . . Are you two dating?"

"No, it was just a one time thing. He's with Ino now."

"I like you. Do you want to go out with me?"

"Yes, I like you too."

". . . Well, that was surprisingly easy."

"Yeah, not at all dramatic."

"Pick you up Friday night, seven?"

"Sounds good. It's the twenty-third today, isn't it?"

"Yeah. Why?"

"Isn't it your birthday today?"

"Oh, yeah. I forgot."

"Happy Birthday." She kissed him on the mouth.

__________________________________________________________________________________

**A/N: She didn't get him a birthday present. A kiss was the first thing she thought of. And it was Sasuke's fifteenth, just so you know. Well, story over. Hope you liked it. If you didn't, well, that's fine, I don't care, I'm proud of this either way.**


End file.
